Divergence looms for Eurozone and US in Jackson Hole speeches August 21, 2014 WORLD-famous economists arrived at Jackson Hole yesterday, as the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s annual conference on monetary policy begins. Speeches today will come from Fed chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank (ECB) boss Mario Draghi, the world’s two most important monetary policymakers. Analysts suspect that the speeches will display an emerging division between the [...]
Chinese industry signals slower growth as prices begin to drop August 21, 2014 CHINA’S manufacturing sector weakened to a three-month low this month, falling back towards negative territory after a more promising start to the summer. According to HSBC’s survey of the country’s dominant industrial base, released yesterday, manufacturers grew more slowly in August. The bank’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) figure dropped back to 50.3, barely above the [...]
Record order book at £3.2bn cheers Costain August 21, 2014 COSTAIN group, the major UK construction and engineering group, announced yesterday it had achieved a record order book and solid growth in underlying profits, as it shifted its focus with more major contracts in the rail and oil and gas sectors. The forward order book for the company zoomed up to £3.2bn in the first [...]
City Moves for 22 August 2014 | Who’s switching jobs August 21, 2014 RBC Global Asset Management The asset management arm of Royal Bank of Canada has appointed Clive Brown as chief executive and managing director of RBC Global Asset Management International. He joins from JP Morgan Asset Management, where he was global chief operating officer and chairman of Asia. Brown has also previously worked as chief executive [...]
Reorganising Kazakhmys beats forecasts August 21, 2014 KAZAKHMYS, the mining company with major operations in Kazakhstan, saw its earnings drop in the first half, but still handily beat analysts expectations. It is now driving forward a major restructuring that will see it divest a wide range of assets as it seeks to transform its fortunes. A shadow was cast over the results, [...]
Analyst Views: What do you think of the Kazazakmys’ results and restructuring plans? August 21, 2014 AMOS FLETCHER | BARCLAYS Underlying results were good, as earnings beat our estimates by 21 per cent. The key driver of the beat was the gross cash cost performance, with impressive cost control. This came despite slightly lower-than-expected copper sales volumes. The emerging new company, KAZ Minerals, is an interesting investment proposition. CAILEY BARKER | [...]
Premier Oil production soars as UK fields output up 50 per cent August 21, 2014 Production rose sharply at oil and gas explorer Premier Oil in the first half of 2014, with the company boosted by increased flow in the UK up more than 50 per cent. Premier Oil saw production rise to the equivalent of 64,900 barrel a day on average in the year to June 30th, up 11 [...]
Salesforce announces huge revenue increase August 21, 2014 CLOUD computing software giant Salesforce.com yesterday reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by an increase in demand for its web-based sales and marketing software. The San Francisco-based company raised its full-year profit and revenue forecast. Spending on enterprise resource management (ERM) and customer relationship management (CRM) has been particularly strong. Research firm IDC expects ERM and [...]
Best of the Brokers for 22 August 2014 August 21, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BOVIS HOMES UBS has kept its “buy” rating, raising the target price to 1,000p from 965p. The broker notes Bovis is gearing up for material volume growth, aiming to reach 5,000 to 6,000 units over the five years or so, almost double the [...]
London Report: Reports of new Pfizer Astra bid pushes up FTSE August 21, 2014 BRITAIN’S top equity index yesterday rose on gains in healthcare stocks, led by Astrazeneca on speculation that previously rejected US suitor Pfizer might make another bid. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up 22.18 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 6,777.66 points. Astrazeneca rose three per cent to 4,411.50p, while domestic rival Glaxosmithkline advanced 1.2 [...]