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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 29 APRIL 2015 11 Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way Greek PM Tsipras sees EU deal by next week Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said Greece is in the final, critical stretch of talks with its international creditors and that he believes an interim deal will be in place by 9 May. The objective was to find an agreement this week or next at the latest, he said in a marathon TV interview. He defended Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who was sidelined from Greece's negotiating team on Monday. But he admitted mistakes had been made in talks with the EU partners. Since Greece's left-wing Syriza party came to power on 25 January, it has sought to renegotiate the terms of the country's €240 billion bailout from the IMF and EU. But its negotiators have so far failed to satisfy Greece's international creditors with the scope of economic reforms required before the EU hands over the latest €7.2bn tranche of the bailout, which the government needs to pay its bills. Varoufakis was left isolated at an EU finance ministers meeting in Latvia on Friday, skipping a state dinner and tweeting a line from late US President Franklin Roosevelt. Describing Varoufakis as an important asset for Greece, Tsipras argued that he had annoyed his European colleagues because he spoke their language better than they did. From now on, Greece's negotiations will be led by another economist in the government, Euclid Tsakalotos. Japanese shares shrug off negative data Oil price hovers at four-month high Japanese shares ended higher on Tuesday despite negative retail sales data and a cut to the country's credit rating. The Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.4% to 20,058.95 as investors shrugged off news that retail sales fell at the fastest pace in 17 years in March. Retail sales for the world's third largest economy fell 9.7% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, US ratings agency Fitch downgraded Japan's credit rating to A, five notches below the top rating. Fitch said the government had failed to offset the impact of a delay in a sales tax hike with measures to address the deficit. Japan's debt is the biggest among developed nations and more than twice the size of its economy. In China, the Hong Kong Hang Seng index ended flat at 28,442.75, while the Shanghai Composite fell 1.1% to 4,476.21 – leading the region's losses. Shares of oil giants PetroChina and Sinopec fell around 5% after they dismissed speculation that they would merge. In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed down 0.6% at 5,948.5 despite rising iron ore prices. The price of iron ore, which is Australia's most important export commodity, on Tuesday rose to its highest level since March to $59.09 a tonne. Analysts said the price rise could give a boost to shares, but that the resistance to the benchmark breaking the 6,000 mark was "incredibly strong". "The ASX has tested this point five times this year," said Evan Lucas from IG Markets in Australia, "[but] each time it has considered touching 6,000, it has failed." Meanwhile, South Korea's benchmark Kospi index closed down 0.5% to 2,147.67. The price of oil is hovering at a four-and-a-half month high amid concerns over disruption to supplies from the Middle East. Brent crude oil is at $65.37 per barrel and has gained around $9 since March. A slowdown in US shale oil production and the conflict in Yemen have been cited as the main reasons for the rise in the oil price in recent weeks. It comes as BP, Shell and Exxon Mobil are expected to report sharp falls in first quarter earnings this week. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: "Overall we are in an upwards trend and we do appear to have found a short-term base. There's a good chance we could see $70 a barrel [for Brent] over the course of the next month or so." While Yemen itself is not among the biggest oil producers in the Middle East, Gulf producers ship oil along the Gulf of Aden on Yemen's southern coast and through the narrow straits of Bab el-Mandeb, between Yemen and Djibouti. As a result fighting in the region could create log jams in delivery. Over the next few days the oil majors BP, Shell and Exxon are set to report results and city analysts are forecasting falls of more than 60% in profits, compared with the same three month period a year earlier. That comes as a direct result of falling oil prices, which were more than 50% lower in the first three months of 2015 compared with the same time last year. All seven major global oil firms are forecast to report a year-on-year decline in income of around 57%, according to analysts at Jefferies. Analysts at Barclays bank cautioned against undue optimism over oil prices, which are still $50 per barrel below their previous high of $115 per barrel last August. "Sustaining the recent oil price rally requires firmer demand and a tangible supply response," they said in a note. "The cart is moving ahead of the horse, and we take a cautious view on further price appreciation over the near term." Separately, UK government officials warned off any potential suitor for BP ahead of the release of its first quarter results on Tuesday. A senior City source was quoted by the Financial Times newspaper as saying the government "would make their opposition so clear that any foreign bidder would be deterred from actually making a bid." A poor set of results might make BP vulnerable to a takeover from one of its rivals. But the final bill for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill off the US coast in 2010 and the firm's exposure to Russia through its Rosneft business could deter would- be suitors. Earlier this month Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group announced a £47bn merger. Should it receive regulatory approval the deal would be one of the biggest of 2015 and could produce a company with a value of more than £200bn. YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt Tsipras - mistakes made in EU talks