18 energy suppliers pay out £10.4m for overcharging customers March 2, 2021 Ofgem has this morning charged 18 energy suppliers, including British Gas, Shell, and Scottish Power, a combined £10.4m for overcharging their customers. In total, over 1m customers were wrongly charged £7.2m for firms’ failures to correctly protect customers’ tariff prices when they decided to switch supplier or tariff. The watchdog said that most of the [...]
Fresnillo triples profit on back of booming gold and silver prices March 2, 2021 Mexican miner Fresnillo this morning said that its profit tripled in 2020 as booming gold and silver prices offset a slight fall in production. The FTSE 100 firm said that profit before tax jumped to $551.3m (£397.3m) for the last financial year, up from $178.8m in 2019. That’s considerably ahead of analyst predictions of profit [...]
Hong Kong explores allowing SPAC listings March 2, 2021 Hong Kong is considering allowing SPAC listings as the popularity of blank-cheque vehicles starts to pick up outside the US. Special-acquisition companies (SPACS) are vehicles that raise capital through a public listing with the purpose of acquiring an existing company. They offer private companies a faster and more predictable way to go public and have [...]
S&P rises as Biden’s stimulus heads to the Senate March 1, 2021 The news that Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill had passed through Congress over the weekend helped give investors confidence, pushing markets up round the world. The bill will now move to the Senate, where the Democrats hold the casting vote. The S&P 500 rose 2.5 per cent and the Nasdaq jumped 2.9 per cent [...]
London regains top spot in Schroders’ Global Cities Index March 1, 2021 | City Talk London has returned to the top spot in the Schroders’ Global Cities Index after scoring highly in its response to climate change in comparison to other cities in the index. This year, the index has introduced a transport score into the ranking, with a particular focus on mass transit systems. As a result, car-reliant Los [...]
Reviews website Trustpilot set for London IPO March 1, 2021 Trustpilot is considering launching an initial public offering in London that would see at least a quarter of the company floated on the London Stock Exchange. The offer would comprise new shares raising proceeds of around $50m, the company announced on Monday. Trustpilot is targeting a premium listing on the London market and expects to [...]
Russian retailer Fix Price targets $1.7bn London listing March 1, 2021 Russian budget retailer Fix Price is targeting an IPO size of between $1.5bn and $1.7bn as it finalises its London listing. Earlier this month the company, which is the largest value retailer in Russia, announced its float would allow it to pursue growth and international expansion. Fix Price, which launched in 2007, has more than [...]
UK bonds suffer biggest monthly fall in years February 26, 2021 UK bond prices recorded their sharpest fall in years this month, as investors bet on a rebound in growth and possibly inflation. The fall comes just days before the budget, in which Chancellor Rishi Sunak will set out his economics plans for the UK. The month’s sharp declines largely reflect a global sell-off led by [...]
Back of the net: Beckham-backed cannabis company scores soaring market debut February 26, 2021 UK-based Cellular Goods, a cannabis company backed by David Beckham, has seen its stock price soar on its first day trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The company’s share price rocketed 310 per cent in early trading, continuing the trend of cannabis-related companies listing on the stock market in the UK and then soaring [...]
City A.M. TV: Daily Market Snapshot (video) February 26, 2021 There was a sharp shift in tone in markets yesterday, with the back-up in bond yields causing significant disruption in the equity market. Of note, that disruption spread beyond the tech and growth sectors – with weakness in all 11 S&P500 sectors, all 24 S&P500 industry groups, and all the key US headline equity indices [...]