The Carrefour name has disappeared from storefronts in some Arab countries, with pro-Palestinian shoppers and activists hailing the shift as a victory for their boycott of brands perceived as being linked to Israel.The French multinational has long been in the crosshairs of Palestinian supporters, who accuse it of selling products from Israeli settlements and partnering with Israeli firms operating there.The group has denied operating in the settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.But in the past year Majid Al Futtaim, the group that operates the Carrefour franchise in the Middle East, has closed the brand’s supermarkets in Jordan, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.It has since reopened under the new name HyperMax, citing “growing demand for locally sourced products and services in a number of our markets”.It did not explicitly link the rebranding to the boycotts, and experts are divided over how much of a role they played in the closures.But pro-Palestinian shoppers have nonetheless claimed victoryHuda Ahmed, a 45-year-old mother of three, said she stepped into the Carrefour-turned-HyperMax store in Manama, Bahrain last week for the first time in almost two years.”I am glad they actually listened to their customers and disengaged from the Carrefour brand. Things can’t be business as usual with a genocide going on at our doorsteps,” Ahmed told AFP.”We still made sure not to buy the products that are on the boycott lists… but the company deserves credit for making the move,” she added.- ‘Broader scaling down’ -The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which began two decades ago, has accused Carrefour of “profiting from Israel’s illegal settlements” through its franchise partnership with Israeli retailer Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary, supermarket chain Yenot Bitan.According to BDS, Yenot Bitan has stores in settlements and both firms are “directly involved in a number of projects fostering Israel’s illegal settlements enterprise”.It has accused Carrefour-Israel of supporting Israeli soldiers “partaking in the unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza with gifts of personal packages”.It also demanded that Carrefour stop selling products from the settlements.Carrefour chief executive Alexandre Bompard has said previously that no Carrefour stores are operating in West Bank settlements and has denied having any “partisan or political ties”.The Israeli government accuses supporters of the BDS movement of being antisemitic.In Bahrain, which has ties to Israel, activists have held weekly protests and vigils for Gaza.According to a HyperMax employee in the country, foot traffic slowed noticeably after the start of the Gaza war, when the store was still operating under the Carrefour brand.”Almost all our customers stopped coming,” he said, requesting anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Since the rebranding, “I am seeing more customers coming in, particularly Bahrainis and Arabs.”For M.R. Raghu, who heads the Marmore Mena Intelligence consulting firm, the Carrefour closures are part of a “broader scaling down of operations by the retailer, amid weakening financial health” as its stores also shut elsewhere in the world.And Majid Al Futtaim has maintained Carrefour franchises elsewhere in the Middle East, including in the Gulf’s two biggest economies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.- ‘Brand concerns’ -Ghassan Nasaif, a pro-Palestinian activist in Bahrain, called Majid Al Futtaim’s decision a “great victory” for the movement, saying “this is exactly what we were asking” from the group.Majid Al Futtaim saw its retail revenue, which includes Carrefour, drop 10 percent last year following a four percent decline in 2023, with the company citing “geopolitical tensions” affecting consumer sentiment, among other factors.In the first half of this year, retail revenues have softened one percent from the same period a year earlier.”Consumer demand is currently strong and growing across the Gulf, and the fact that the regional franchise holder, MAF, has been rebranding many Carrefour stores as HyperMax does seem to imply a link to boycott-related brand concerns,” according to Justin Alexander, director of Khalij Economics, a consulting firm.For Musab al-Otaibi, an activist in Kuwait, people have “no other weapon than boycotts” as the death toll climbs in Gaza. Bader al-Saif, an assistant professor at Kuwait University, called the Carrefour closures “a microcosm of a bigger story”. “It shows that the voices of people in the Gulf do matter… that there are ways to express yourself even if you’re in a restricted space,” he said.strs-aya/ds/smw/ser

A surge in tech firms helped Tokyo’s Nikkei lead most Asian equities higher on Friday as investors headed into the weekend on a broadly positive note, with US rate-cut hopes out-muscling concerns about a government shutdown.The rally across world markets this year has largely been fuelled by companies ploughing billions of dollars into all things artificial intelligence, and traders not wanting to miss out on the action.That has helped push the valuations of some of the biggest names to eye-watering levels — with US chip titan Nvidia topping $4 trillion — and several markets to record highs.This week has seen extra momentum after South Korean semiconductor giants Samsung and SK hynix said they had struck a preliminary deal with the ChatGPT developer OpenAI to supply chips and other equipment for its Stargate project.And on Friday, it was the turn of Japan’s Hitachi, which said it had joined into a strategic partnership with OpenAI to work on AI and energy, among other things.Hitachi jumped more than 10 percent, while other Japanese tech firms followed suit with Renesas up 7.3 percent, Sony gaining 2.3 percent and Advantest rising more than four percent. Tech investment giant SoftBank piled on more than three percent.The advance helped push Tokyo’s Nikkei 1.9 percent higher, while there were also gains in Sydney, Singapore, Bangkok, Wellington, Taipei, Jakarta and Manila.London, Paris and Frankfurt all rose in the morning.Hong Kong retreated after jumping more than four percent in the previous three trading days. Shanghai was closed for a holiday.The rally — which saw all three main Wall Street indexes to all-time peaks Thursday — has also been stoked by data in recent months pointing to a slowdown in the US labour market.That has led the Federal Reserve to cut borrowing costs and indicate more to come.The positive sentiment has overshadowed the standoff in Washington that has seen the government partially shut down, leading to the closure of some services and the likely delay of the release of key jobs figures later in the day.While the readings on non-farm payrolls (NFPs) is a major guide for the Fed when deciding monetary policy, analysts said the shutdown was unlikely to deter the bank from an expected second rate cut this month.”The general vibe is that the government shutdown could potentially shave $15–$20 billion off of US GDP, but it will largely be backfilled and therefore should have only a negligible lasting impact on economic activity,” said Pepperstone’s Chris Weston.”That said, there are reasons to think Trump’s threat to permanently furlough certain government workers could spill over into more of a market risk event.”Still, he added that the US government could still “reopen in time for the NFP and possibly even the (consumer price) reports to be released” before the next Fed policy meeting on October 29.A Senate vote is expected Friday on a House-passed resolution to keep the government funded at current levels through November 21.In company news, Japanese beer titan Asahi fell more than one percent after a cyberattack that hit its ordering and delivery system this week forced it to stop production at some factories. Its shares have fallen around seven percent this week.Officials at the firm said they did not know when they would be back up and running.The positive mood on trading floors has also helped bitcoin regain some of its mojo, striking back above $120,000 for the first time since mid-August when it hit a record 124,515.- Key figures at around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.9 percent at 45,769.50 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 27,140.92 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 9,464.95 Shanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1735 from $1.1720 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3463 from $1.3446Dollar/yen: UP at 147.41 yen from 147.19 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.19 pence from 87.17 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.9 percent at $61.01 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.8 percent at $64.61 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 46,519.72 (close)