Gas Prices up 2 cents
AAA Michigan says gasoline prices are up 2 cents per gallon over the past week to a statewide average of $3.98.
The auto club says today the statewide average is about $1.13 cents per gallon higher than last year at this time.
Of the cities it surveys, AAA Michigan says the cheapest price for self-serve regular fuel is in the Saginaw and Bay City areas, where it's $3.93 a gallon. The highest average can be found in the Marquette area at $4.09.
Dearborn-based AAA Michigan surveys 2,800 Michigan gas stations daily.
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Kia leads rising car
sales in Lebanon
BEIRUT: Sales of new cars in the first quarter of 2011 increased by 7.3 percent from 6,039 to 6,483 compared with the same period last year - with Korean cars leading the way in sales, the most popular models being Kia and Hyundai.
According to the New Car Importers Association in Lebanon, March sales in 2011 alone were 2,687, compared with 2,497 in the same period of 2010, an increase of 7.6 percent.
First-quarter figures show that Korean cars are still a bestseller in Lebanon, with 2,803 cars sold, a rise in demand of 54.69 percent. This is followed by Japanese cars with 2,059 sales, a decline of 21.95 percent.
Demand for European cars has fallen by 10.3 percent, with 1,629 sold this quarter compared with 1,816 new cars in the same period last year.
Toyota came in third place with 908 sales.
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The biggest 50
Gulf companies
The Gulf's 50 biggest companies have coped well despite a downturn in the world economy.
The biggest company, by far, is again SABIC, and four of the top 10 are Saudis.
SABIC, a petrochemicals giant market cap, is worth $86bn, an impressive 22 percent more than last year, and yet only 30 percent of its shares are listed on the Tadawul.
SABIC's value dwarves those of the other firms in the top 10. In second place is Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank, with a market cap of $30.5bn, slightly less than last year's $31.6bn, reflecting a difficult year of provisioning for the kingdom's banks.
In third place is the UAE's Etisalat, with a market cap of $21.96bn, again slightly down from the $22.60bn recorded this time last year.
The big winner in the last 12 months appears to be Industries Qatar, which has jumped from seventh to fourth place, with its market cap rising by 8.5 percent to $21.47bn.
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Gulf - Central Asia
rail route planned
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan agreed on Monday with Iran, Qatar and Oman to create a transit rail route linking energy-rich but landlocked Central Asia to the Gulf.
The new transport corridor will run from Uzbekistan across Turkmenistan and then to the Gulf via Iran, bypassing chronically unstable Afghanistan next door. It is due for completion by September 2012.
The new transit link could be part of the planned 934-km (585-mile) North-South railway corridor, already being developed to improve Turkmenistan's access to northern neighbor Kazakhstan and further northwards to Russia. - Reuters