Lambeth and Southwark are leading London’s housing boom April 10, 2014 SOUTH London is leading the housing boom in the capital and the UK as a whole, according to figures out today from LSL Property Services. Prices in Lambeth soared 31.5 per cent in the last year to an average of £551,662 in February. And Southwark was close behind with a 24.8 per cent jump to [...]
Forex scandal hits Singapore central bank April 10, 2014 A SUSPENDED Deutsche Bank trader may have had inappropriate links to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), it emerged yesterday. London-based sales director Kai Lew was put on leave last month as part of the bank’s internal probe into alleged foreign exchange benchmark manipulation. The action was taken because she had communicated improperly with MAS, the Wall Street Journal reported [...]
Cambian makes it over the line April 10, 2014 CAMBIAN, the provider of specialist behavioural health services, yesterday priced its shares at the bottom of a range of between 225p-290p, valuing the group at around £400m. The shares begin conditional trading today on the London stock market. Most groups floating on the market since the New Year have issued shares towards the middle or [...]
Discounts weigh on M&S despite rise in clothing April 10, 2014 MARKS & Spencer’s revamped womenswear collection, which has been fronted by stars including Dame Helen Mirren, showed signs of recovery in the fourth quarter despite overall general merchandise sales falling for an 11th consecutive quarter. The high street giant yesterday split clothing sales from other non-food sales for the first time, revealing a 0.6 per [...]
Bottom Line: Bolland must use his breathing space wisely April 10, 2014 MARKS & Spencer’s boss Marc Bolland usually looks pretty pleased with himself, but yesterday his proud smile was somewhat justified. By posting the retailer’s best clothing performance in three years – based on an improvement in its crucial womenswear lines – Bolland has proved the critics wrong, pulling something that looks like the start of [...]
Carney to be tested on low rates April 10, 2014 BRITAIN could have less than a year left before the Bank of England considers raising interest rates, analysts hinted yesterday. The warning came as the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) held interest rates again yesterday. The base rate has been held at 0.5 per cent for more than five years, through the financial crisis and [...]
UK must not miss public service boom in emerging economies April 10, 2014 A LEADING business group will today urge the government to ensure the UK benefits from a growing industry in providing public services to people in emerging markets. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) calculates that public procurement in a dozen key emerging economies will be worth £452bn by 2030 – but warns that, at current rates, [...]
Inside Track: The new issues market drifts into ever choppier waters April 10, 2014 THIS was the week when a sudden reality check intervened in the new issues market. It came after a blissful start to the year that has seen share prices popping, books covered multiple times and investors cashing out most profitably. The big losers earlier this week were the technology stocks, with shares in AO World, [...]
Hays says firms are now hiring across Britain April 10, 2014 A BOUNCE in hiring across the country has helped Hays to lift its profit outlook for the year, pushing shares in the UK’s biggest recruiter to the highest level since the recession. The firm’s UK and Ireland business posted a 14 per cent jump in net fees for the first three months of the year, [...]
Analyst Views: How are Hays and the other recruiters faring? April 10, 2014 PAUL JONES | PANMURE GORDONA good update from Hays, with impressive UK growth and further evidence of a pick-up in activity levels and profitability. We believe recruitment stocks could now deliver increasing levels of profitability as activity and productivity levels improve, and with increasing client confidence the outlook remains positive. DAVID O’BRIEN | SHORE CAPITALWe [...]