Residents of non-OPEC oil exporters including Norway, Mexico and Russia, placed $36 billion in funds with BIS reporting banks.

LONDON, MARCH 6--Major oil exporters deposited a record $82 billion with international banks in the third quarter of last year, maintaining the trend of recycling part of their oil revenues, the Bank for International Settlements said.
The Basel-based BIS said the destination for deposits placed by OPEC member countries with BIS reporting banks was primarily the US, according to Reuters.
“Major oil-exporting countries continued to recycle a portion of their oil revenues through BIS reporting banks... Deposits by residents of OPEC member countries... were primarily US dollar-denominated,“ the BIS, a forum for central banks, said in a quarterly report released on Sunday.
Major oil exporting countries play an increasingly important role in the global financial market as their revenues have soared after last year’s sharp rise in oil prices and they invest billions of petrodollars in global assets.
The BIS said the $82 billion placed by OPEC members as well as non-OPEC oil exporters with BIS reporting banks was the largest quarterly placement by this group of countries recorded in its statistics.
The dollar share of reporting banks’ liabilities to OPEC countries was relatively unchanged at 72 per cent.
The BIS said residents of non-OPEC oil exporters including Norway, Mexico and Russia, placed $36 billion in funds with BIS reporting banks.
The US dollar share of total liabilities with non-OPEC oil exporters fell to 61 per cent in the third quarter, compared with 62 per cent in the previous quarter and close to 80 per cent prior to end-2002.
The BIS said over the last 15 years, roughly 16 per cent of BIS reporting banks’ total liabilities to OPEC members have been reported by banks in the US.
The share of OPEC petrodollars being placed in Britain fell to 25 per cent in the third quarter. This compares with 35 percent in 1985.
UK banks’ share of total liabilities to non-OPEC oil exporters rose to 35 per cent in the third quarter from 22 per cent in 2002.
“Residents of non-OPEC oil-exporting countries have increasingly channeled their deposits through banks in the United Kingdom,“ the BIS said.
The BIS added the continued recycling of oil revenues, and deposit placements by banks in Asia-Pacific, led to a net outflow of funds from emerging markets.

BEIJING, March 6--China and Japan open a fourth round of talks on Monday about how to develop oil and gas resources in disputed areas of the East China Sea, but few see the issue being resolved quickly partly due to poor bilateral ties, Reuters said.
Japan’s goal was to gauge the Chinese reaction to a proposal for joint development of the resources made at the third round of negotiations in January, a spokesman for the Japanese embassy in Beijing said.
Past talks have been hampered by strained ties between the two over a range of disputes, most stemming from Japan’s invasion and occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945.
“We have already presented our position, and are expecting to hear what the Chinese side thinks about this,“ Kenichiro Sasae, head of the Japanese delegation and the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, was quoted as saying late on Sunday by Japan’s Kyodo news agency.
The two sides have agreed in principle to jointly develop the gas and oil reserves near the islands known in Japan as the Senkakus and in China as the Diaoyus.
But they disagree over the position of the border between their exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea, and Tokyo fears China’s exploitation of resources in the area could tap into resources in its own zone.
In past talks, Japan asked China to provide information on the scope of its resource discoveries in the area and to halt development until a solid agreement was reached, the embassy spokesman said.
Japan-China relations have sunk to their lowest point in decades over a range of disputes, particularly Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to a Tokyo war shrine that China sees as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.
Sasae told reporters on Sunday that other issues could come up in meetings with Chinese officials before the gas talks opened on Monday and did not deny the stalled six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear program might be discussed.
February talks in Beijing between Japan and North Korea about normalizing relations ended with the two sides far apart over the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens and yielded no agreement on when Pyongyang might return to the six-party discussions.
North Korea has repeatedly said it cannot return to the nuclear talks, which group the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, the United States and host China, unless the United States drops sanctions imposed on firms suspected of involvement in counterfeiting and drug trafficking by the North.

New York Stock Exchange ends 213 years as a member-owned exchange when it seals its purchase of electronic rival Archipelago Holdings.

NEW YORK, March 6--Founded by some traders under a tree on Wall Street two centuries ago, the world’s biggest stock exchange enters a new growth phase this week as it goes public, building a war chest to expand globally and add assets, Reuters reported.
New York Stock Exchange ends 213 years as a member-owned exchange when it seals its purchase of electronic rival Archipelago Holdings (AX.P) and sets up the NYSE Group Inc. which starts trading on Wednesday.
Adding stock options, fixed income products and more over-the-counter trading to its menu, the NYSE will pit itself in the United States against the younger, more nimble Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., the world’s second largest exchange.
But with the NYSE planning a share sale within weeks of going public, analysts also expect the new company to be quick off the mark to join the ongoing consolidation among bourses in Europe and even in Asia.
The not-for-profit NYSE opted to go public, not through an initial public offering but by giving its 1,366 owners, or seat holders, $300,000 each in cash and 80,177 shares in a new company of which NYSE shareholders own 70 percent. NYSE Group will have a market value of over $10 billion.
Analysts expect the stock sale to be well received, mirroring other offerings since exchanges worldwide began to move away from being member-owned clubs and go public.
Shares of Deutsche Borse AG (DB1Gn.DE), which led this trend in 2001, have continued to do well, rising 94 percent last year as one of Europe’s best-performing stocks.
In the United States, shares of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (NYSE:CME - news) have climbed more than 12-fold to $434 each since it went public at $35 in 2002. They rose 61 percent in 2005.

The 6.8 billion dollar deal in which DP World would take over Britain's Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Navigation Co. has provoked outcries that it would endanger US security.

WASHINGTON, March 6--The head of a Dubai company facing a political firestorm over its multi-billion dollar bid to take over the operations of six major American ports voiced optimism Sunday the deal would succeed.
In an interview with CNN television, Dubai Ports World chief executive officer Mohammed Sharaf said: “As far as we’re concerned the deal is going to go through.“
After initially approving the 6.8 billion dollar deal, the administration of President George W. Bush has launched a fresh review of the transaction amid fierce political opposition from within the government’s own ranks.
The deal, in which DP World would take over Britain’s Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Navigation Co. which currently runs the six ports, has provoked outcries that it would endanger US security.
Republican representative Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, is seeking to sink the takeover.
The lawmaker alleges Dubai operates as a “bazaar for terrorist nations“ and cannot be trusted to safeguard vital American national security interests in a post-September 11 world.
Hunter told the ABC News “This Week“ program on Sunday that government-owned DP World cannot be trusted to run US ports in Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York and
Philadelphia.
“Dubai has a reputation of being the place where you go in ...if you want to ship something with anonymity,“ Hunter said, claiming it had been used as a transshipment center for weapons
proliferation, including nuclear centrifuges.
Asked about Hunter’s claims, Sharaf told CNN from the company’s Dubai headquarters that DP World is a global player that takes security issues very seriously.
“We operate in five continents of the world. We are recognized as the best in the industry. Obviously, the American people have an issue. We would like to know that and rectify if there are any security measures that we need to take and we have not taken it yet,“ Sharaf said.
Sharaf also noted that the British government had approved the deal and he warned of serious financial consequences for investors if US lawmakers derail it.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 6--Presenting six years of economic development as a success story, Pakistan has started a renewed campaign to attract foreign investment that so far has remained short of expectations and is required to partially offset rising trade and current account deficits, World News reported.
For this, it has started investor conferences and direct inter-action with market players and investment firms abroad. Last week, a Pakistani team comprising adviser to the prime minister on finance
Dr. Salman Shah, economic adviser to the finance ministry Dr Ashfaq Hasan Khan and secretary privatization Tehsin Iqbal launched soft marketing of its investment environment in London.
Three separate events were organized by Economist Conferences, London Stock Exchange and International Financial Services Limited (IFSL) of UK, in collaboration with Department for International Development (DFID) and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) for a two-way marketing exercise.
During these events, it emerged that Pakistan would launch soon the global depository receipts (GDRs) of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) at the London Stock Exchange, instead of Luxembourg, owing to better trading and investment environment in London.
Pakistan has also decided to privatize or give management contracts of ports and airports to the private investors as part of government’s decision to improve transport and infrastructure facilities to the satisfaction of international investors.
Pakistan’s decision to launch OGDCL’s GDR at the LSE is based on the fact that corporate announcements required under the UK’s regulator is as per rules of Pakistan stock exchanges and there is no difference in rules for UK’s local or foreign companies for listing.
The trading of 3091 companies listed at the London Stock Exchange, include 554 international and 2537 domestic companies. Total market capitalization of LSE is about $7.142 trillion, comprising $3.152 trillion of UK companies and $3.990 trillion of internationally listed companies.
The government has informed the prospective investors that rationalization of gas tariff in Pakistan was currently in progress. On privatization, the government would provide comfort level to the new buyers of two utilities by absolving them of subsidy factor that the government would provide through its budget. The government would also make financing arrangements for new domestic connection in remote areas.

LONDON, March 6--An international conference which aims to find new ways of tackling poverty in Asia--home to two-thirds of the world’s poor--is being held in London, BBC News website reported.
The event has been organized jointly by the UK government, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
It aims to put the spotlight on Asia, after a year in which much of the focus has been on poverty in Africa.
A key aim is for Asia’s politicians and non-government groups to discuss how to distribute wealth more evenly.
Fresh cash pledges are also expected to be announced at the event over the next two days.
BBC Asia analyst Jill McGivering said the contrasts in Asia are extreme and much of the focus has been on the success stories - from East Asia’s now mature economies to the current explosive growth of countries like China and India.
But across Asia more than a billion people live on less than $1 a day, she said.
Even within its booming economies, many people are simply excluded and that has created dramatic wealth gaps between rural and urban areas, men and women and different ethnic groups, she said.
Organizers of the conference, which starts on Monday, say absolute poverty could be eliminated in Asia within a generation--but that may need major changes.
One of the biggest questions will be how to manage Asia’s growth in a more stable and inclusive way.
Other concerns include: better protection of the environment; better infrastructure, especially in poverty-stricken regions; and stronger public and financial institutions.