Retail sales growth beats analysts’ expectations March 22, 2018 Retail sales grew by 0.8 per cent in February, beating analysts’ expectations. However, in the three months to February, sales fell by 0.4 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was due to a sharp drop in sales in December. The bump was largely due to growth in groceries, fuel and online [...]
First-time-buyers and government policies boost Crest Nicholson performance March 22, 2018 Investors in Crest Nicholson were cheered this morning as the company said that demand for new houses continues to be strong. Ahead of the group’s AGM today, it issued a statement saying that total forward sales contributing to the current financial year were up 15 per cent at £620m. It said: “Demand for new homes [...]
Flybe (FLYB) share price falls after Stobart Group abandons offer for airline March 22, 2018 The owner of London Southend Airport this morning said it was pulling its interest in regional airline Flybe and won’t be making an offer for the carrier. Shares in Flybe dived on the news, sinking 25 per cent in early trading. In a statement this morning, Stobart Group said it had been “unable to reach [...]
Ultra Electronics flies in figures guru as new boss March 22, 2018 Defence giant Ultra Electronics has picked the former boss of BBA Aviation as its new chief executive. Simon Pryce will join the FTSE 250 firm on 18 June, he is both a chartered accountant and a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. investors breathed a sigh of relief at Pryce’s appointment with [...]
De La Rue (DLAR) share price falls after it loses out on contract for new British passport post-Brexit and mulls appeal March 22, 2018 De La Rue this morning confirmed it had missed out on the contract to design the new post-Brexit British passport in 2019 and said it was mulling its options, including whether to appeal. De La Rue’s chief executive Martin Sutherland told the BBC’s Today programme the company was “being undercut by a French competitor”, saying [...]
Challenger bank Revolut brings out ‘disposable’ virtual cards to help combat payment fraud March 22, 2018 In an effort to combat payment fraud, challenger bank Revolut has launched single-use virtual cards. When the details of a virtual Revolut debit card are used once to make an online payment, they will be destroyed and a new virtual card will automatically be generated. The technology is aimed at preventing scammers from copying card [...]
Spending on market analysis hit new heights last year amid Mifid II and an M&A flurry March 22, 2018 The amount which businesses spent on financial market data and news last year hit a new record of $28.5bn (£20.2bn), according to research. The spending total grew at the highest year-on-year rate since 2011, the data from TP Icap’s Burton-Taylor International Consulting showed. The boost in research spending came in a year where imminent sweeping [...]
Britain’s post-Brexit priorities are starting to smell a bit fishy March 22, 2018 I get scared just listening to the shipping forecast, so I have nothing but respect for fishing communities and those who fight to protect them. But Brexit is doing something very peculiar to our sense of perspective. Just compare our reactions to news about finance with those we have to news about fish. Read more: [...]
The real Cambridge Analytica scandal is how much data we freely give away March 22, 2018 It will come as a surprise to many users of social media, not just Facebook but more broadly, just how much personal data we throw into the internet ether. Every click entered, every advertisement followed, every connection made, is monitored and tells someone something about us. There are two central allegations against Facebook and Cambridge [...]
Costs of Heathrow’s third runway could outweigh benefits by £2.2bn, says thinktank March 22, 2018 The costs of Heathrow’s controversial third runway could outweigh the economic benefits by at least £2.2bn, according to a thinktank. The New Economics Foundation warns that the third runway may no longer be “financially viable” and that the best-case scenario may only deliver £3.3bn of benefits, a significant scaledown from the Independent Airports Commission’s projection [...]