China growth fears hammer mining shares June 29, 2010 SIX of the FTSE 100’s top ten fallers yesterday were mining companies as traders took fright from a sharp downwards revision to a leading economic index for China. Natural resources stocks and cyclical plays plunged as the US Conference Board moved its April indicator for the Asian powerhouse from 1.7 per cent to just 0.3 [...]
Australian mining tax June 29, 2010 YESTERDAY should have been a good day for the miners – it almost was. Having unceremoniously ousted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the government has lost the upper hand in the battle over a supertax on miners’ profits. Julia Gillard, Rudd’s nemesis and successor, is now trying to enforce a softer version of the levy, although even this [...]
Green bank to invest £25bn in renewables June 29, 2010 AMBITIOUS plans for the green equivalent of 3i, the infrastructure investment behemoth set up by the government after the Second World War, were unveiled yesterday. A commission led by former Merrill Lynch European chairman Bob Wigley said a green investment bank would quickly be able to plough up to £25bn annually into climate change-related technologies. [...]
Budget hits confidence June 29, 2010 THE most austere Budget since the Second World War has done nothing to improve consumer confidence, according to the GfK/NOP Consumer Confidence index, which fell for the fourth consecutive month in June. Published today, the overall index fell one point to -19. All the gains that had been made from December to February have now [...]
M4 money supply feels QE effect June 29, 2010 THE supply of money in the UK grew at its fastest rate since the fourth quarter of 2007 in the three months to May as the impact of the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy starts to be felt, data issued by the central bank showed yesterday. The Bank reported that the three-month annualised growth [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO HOUSE PRICES AND THE MARKET? June 29, 2010 MATTHEW HEAD | HISCOX “Housing in the UK is far too overpriced at the moment but that doesn’t change the fact that there is huge demand for property. It is not likely that the market will suffer another downturn.” RAVI GANESAN | LLOYDS BANKING GROUP “Since house prices are going down, this is good news [...]
ONS postpones GDP revision June 29, 2010 The Office for National Statistics yesterday announced that it would postpone its revision to first-quarter GDP because “quality assurance revealed potential errors in some of the detailed figures”. The revision should have been published today but it has been delayed until 12 July.
Investors sell share holdings June 29, 2010 Institutional investors profited from the 2009 stock market rally to sell off more than £11bn in ordinary UK shares during the first quarter of 2010, the ONS said yesterday. However, they purchased £12.2bn worth of UK government gilts. Total net investment was estimated to have been £5bn compared to the £25.1bn seen in the last [...]
Economic retail sales fall again June 29, 2010 The Eurozone retail sales purchasing managers’ index fell for the sixth consecutive month, according to Markit. The seasonally-adjusted headline measure rose to 49.7, signalling a slower pace of decline. Italy was the main source of weakness but German sales rose at a robust pace, ending two years of continuous decline. Spanish retail sales fell by [...]
Eurozone sentiment improves June 29, 2010 Eurozone economic sentiment edged up again in June to 98.7 from 98.4 in May but confidence is still well below April’s levels and appears to be fragile in the face of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Eurozone business confidence was essentially stable in June following May’s relapse.