The one beneficiary of rising interest rates? Hedge funds: Hedge funds focused on bonds and currencies are en route to record their best year since the 2007-08 financial crisis on the back of central banks everywhere resorting to rate hikes in efforts to curb inflation, the Financial Times reports.

The global economy is diving head first into a recession next year as central banks continue to raise interest rates to combat inflation, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research’s annual World Economic League Table. “The good news is that inflation should fall quite quickly, the bad news is that in many countries it will take a recession to make this happen,” said the Cebr’s head of forecasting, Kay Daniel Neufeld.

Russia is open to resuming gas supplies to Europe via the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which was suspended earlier this year amid a wider energy standoff between the two world powers, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Russian news agency Tass.

	EGX30	14,560	+1.2% (YTD: +21.9%)
	USD (CBE)	Buy 24.68	Sell 24.77
	USD at CIB	Buy 24.68	Sell 24.75
	Interest rates CBE	16.25% deposit	17.25% lending
	Tadawul	10,229	-0.1% (YTD: -9.3%)
	ADX	10,253	-0.5% (YTD: +20.8%)
	DFM	3,327	+0.3% (YTD: +4.1%)
	S&P 500	3,845	+0.6% (YTD: -19.3%)
	FTSE 100	7,473	+0.1% (YTD: +1.2%)
	Euro Stoxx 50	3,817	-0.2% (YTD: -11.2%)
	Brent crude	USD 83.92	+3.6%
	Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 5.08	+1.6%
	Gold	USD 1,804.20	+0.5%
	BTC	USD 16,832	+0.1% (YTD: -63.6%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 1.2% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 978.3 mn (37% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net buyers. The index is up 21.9% YTD.

In the green: Qalaa Holdings (+8.5%), Elsewedy Electric (+8.2%) and GB Auto (+6.9%).

In the red: CIB (-0.7%), QNB Alahli (-0.2%) and Eastern Company (-0.1%).

Asian markets are in the green this morning and shares in Europe and Wall Street are on course to follow them when markets open later today.