Expect a roller-coaster of a time with European equities June 5, 2011 AFTER a decent year, European equities had a volatile and underwhelming time of things last month. Looking forward, it is a tale of two futures: either strong international companies profiting on the back of emerging market growth, or national divisions bringing an end to monetary union. Either way, there will be opportunities for spread betters [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD in association with GFT June 5, 2011 COMPANIES ● Today, Eckoh reports its earnings. It provides the technology for automated call centres. Sorry, could you please repeat that? ● Also today, Gesco, which works with oil and gas companies, will report. Investors will hope that – like others in the sector – it has been able to drill into the gushing profits [...]
THE TIPSTER June 5, 2011 SHARES in online clothes retailer Asos tumbled nearly £2 on Friday, despite pre-tax profits rising 41 per cent to £28.6m. Asos is an AIM-listed company with a market cap of £1.6bn, so the question remains how sustainable the price is at almost five times sales. You can’t knock the ambition though. It has big plans [...]
A man on a mission to the Moonpig.com June 5, 2011 MOONPIG was a nickname I had at school,” says Nick Jenkins. “I needed a two syllable domain name, something comic and unique on Google.” It took him four days of checking potential names on Network Solutions to stumble upon Moonpig. Now a household name, it is also one of the UK’s fastest growing and most [...]
Investor knowledge is business power June 5, 2011 THE news is never short of headlines about small businesses struggling to get hold of start-up capital and nobody is ever short of an opinion on the matter. But until now, few have put their heads together to find a solution. Stepping into the breach, City A.M. and Entrepreneurs World have created a conference to [...]
UK shares recover from shock of poor US data June 3, 2011 Britain’s top share index, bruised by concerns over the global economy in the previous two sessions, rebounded from lows following poor US jobs numbers yesterday to close marginally higher. US non-farm payrolls increased by 54,000 in May, the weakest reading since September, while the jobless rate rose to 9.1 per cent. Economists had expected payrolls [...]
FTSE falls again as fears over economy continue June 2, 2011 BRITAIN’S top shares slid for a second day as worries over weak economic data drove investors from risky assets ahead of Friday’s US non-farm payroll numbers. The FTSE 100 closed down 80.69 points, or 1.4 per cent, at 5,847.92, with volume 93 per cent of its 90-day average. The index fell one per cent in [...]
US stocks flat ahead of key non-farm jobs report June 2, 2011 US stocks ended a volatile trading day mostly flat yesterday as investors were reluctant to make bets a day before a critical labour market report that could magnify fears the economy is slowing. Bank stocks stabilised after falling on news that Goldman Sachs was subpoenaed by New York prosecutors seeking information on its role leading [...]
Economic shocks sent FTSE back below the 6,000 mark June 1, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index dropped back yesterday as below-par US economic pointers and weak UK manufacturing and housing data intensified investor concerns about the strength of the global economy. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 61.38 points, or one per cent, at 5,928.61, reversing sharply in the afternoon after briefly pushing back [...]
Wall Street sell-off on recovery fears June 1, 2011 WALL Street ended a four-day rally with its worst session since August yesterday and could suffer more losses in coming days as investors faced more signs the economic recovery is fading. All 10 Standard & Poor’s sectors ended more than one per cent lower and all 30 stocks in the Dow industrials fell. Banks were [...]