DUBAI

In this booming Gulf emirate, home to soaring personal wealth, hundreds of new skyscrapers and a ski slope plugged into a shopping mall, U.S. private equity investors are pouring in to check out potential investments.

Reliance Industries (RIL), India's most valuable firm in terms of market capitalisation and owner of world's third largest refinery, will be setting aside up to $15 billion for making world-scale acquisitions in the energy sector besides investing more than $12 billion for development of gas exploration off the country's east coast.

Stocks headed for a higher open on Monday, with financial shares set to lead gains after news of the latest large capital injection into a major bank by wealthy investors.

Citigroup Inc is selling up to 4.9 percent of itself for $7.5 billion to the Gulf Arab emirate of Abu Dhabi, giving the largest U.S. bank fresh capital as it wrestles with the subprime mortgage crisis and the resignation of its chief executive. The capital injection will shore up Citi's balance sheet, which has been hurt by some $6.8 billion of writedowns and losses in the third quarter, and the potential for another $11 billion in the fourth quarter.

An Indian film will be released officially Friday in Pakistan, a first for two countries that have banned each other's films for more than three decades.

Dubai raised almost $5 billion selling a stake in port operator DP World in the Middle East's largest IPO, setting the scene for perhaps the biggest test for the emirate's two-year-old bourse where the shares will trade.

The Dubai government agency that bought into Deutsche Bank this year said on Monday it was considering investing in U.S. financial services firms affected by the mortgage-market crisis.

Gold firmed on Wednesday, having briefly tested support below $800 per ounce, leaving investors nervy over the prospect of more falls from recent 28-year highs.

Airbus and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) ensured 2007 smashes all records for plane sales as deals announced at the Dubai air show neared $80 billion on Monday, powered by demand from Gulf Arab states.

Gold gained on Friday, with investors keen to drive the metal to a record high of $850 an ounce as the dollar tumbled to an all-time low and oil rallied.

Global hoteliers are riding a building boom in Asia, and using plush new hotels as giant, living advertisements to lure newly rich Chinese and Indians to their U.S. and European properties.

Wall Street bankers are flocking to the Middle East, and it's not for oil or the balmy weather.

HSBC Holdings Plc helped start a group of indexes that includes benchmarks for global Islamic and Middle East conventional bonds to encourage trading as a global credit crunch delays sales and doubles spreads.

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. may look to sell its 20 percent stake in Bloomberg LP to raise capital after writing down $8.4 billion of assets last quarter, some investors have said.

Gold rebounded on Thursday as bargain hunters returned to the market amid worries about possible military action by Turkey in northern Iraq, high oil prices as well as a weak dollar.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's end to self-exile could eventually lead to power sharing with President Pervez Musharraf.

BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, is building up its onshore private banking presence in China, India and Taiwan and expects total assets under management in Asia to grow by 20 percent a year in the next few years, the head of its Asia private banking operation said.

Gold bounced and gained as much as $5 on Wednesday after falling to a one-week low the previous day, suggesting that fundamentals still favored the metal used as an alternative investment to bonds and currencies.

The Qatar Investment Authority filed for regulatory approval to take a bigger stake in OMX on Tuesday, raising the prospect of a bidding war for the Nordic firm with rival Dubai and its ally Nasdaq.

Gold closed higher in New York on Monday despite a strengthening dollar and weaker crude oil, as U.S. stocks rallied while platinum rose to a near-record high on robust investment demand.

Nasdaq Stock Market Inc and Borse Dubai, aiming to muscle out potential rival bidders, boosted an offer for OMX to $4.9 billion on Wednesday and pushed close to a majority stake in the Nordic exchange group.Borse Dubai is offering 265 Swedish crowns ($40.57) per share, up 15 percent from a previous offer of 230 crowns. It has now secured 47.6 percent of OMX in stock or options for shares.