Business pitches in 140 letters February 11, 2010 EVERY budding entrepreneur dreams of meeting a Richard Branson or Alan Sugar, but for most people it never moves beyond the realm of fantasy. Not any more. Simon Dolan, an entrepreneur who made his fortune establishing accountancy firms including SJD Accounting, is investing £5m of his own money in entrepreneurs. But, Dolan’s investing style has [...]
Q&A SHARE PLANS February 11, 2010 Q. I am an entrepreneur and I am thinking about a share scheme for my employees. What are the benefits for the employer and employee? A.Typically, employee share ownership schemes, or share option schemes, are used by small businesses for the same reasons that they are used by large multi-national corporations: to incentivise, reward and [...]
Possible solution to Eurozone debt woes boosts FTSE 100 February 10, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading shares added 0.4 per cent yesterday as financial issues drew strength from a possible solution to Eurozone debt worries, offsetting a retreat by heavyweight commodity shares. The FTSE 100 ended 20.15 points higher at 5,131.99, recovering from a session low of 5,105.30 in the afternoon but still well below the morning peak of [...]
US stocks dip after Bernanke strategy February 10, 2010 US stocks dipped yesterday as worries over Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s strategy after the economy recovers offset optimism about a possible rescue for debt-burdened Greece. Trading volume was light, with many participants leaving early because of an East Coast snowstorm. The French daily Le Monde wrote that France and Germany were set to present [...]
ETFs are ideal for commercial property plays February 10, 2010 ONE of the biggest casualties of the financial crisis was the commercial property sector – capital values slumped 45 per cent in the UK, according to the Investment Property Databank (IPD). The recession also saw occupier demand contract, which drove up vacancy rates and forced down rents. But since the summer, we have seen an [...]
Bernanke’s brakes on bonds good for stocks February 10, 2010 THE snow forced Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to submit a written testimony to Washington’s legislators yesterday rather than go to Capital Hill in person, but the message the Fed governor delivered was the same regardless of the weather: he plans to withdraw support from the financial markets at some point soon. Bernanke outlined a [...]
INVESTORS’ GLOSSARY February 10, 2010 ALPHA Alpha is one of the two measures traditionally used to judge the performance of a money manager. It refers to the excess return that a money manager can generate by using his skills to pick the best performing stocks in the financial markets. If a money manager generates a positive alpha this means they [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS February 10, 2010 THREE ETFS TRACKING FRENCH CAC 40 Three new exchange-traded funds listed in Paris yesterday, all tracking the French blue-chip CAC 40. Comstage ETF launched the products on behalf of its parent company Commerzbank. The ComStage ETF CAC 40 aims to track the performance of the underlying index and charges an annual fee of 0.20 per [...]
Weak economy means Belgium could be next to join the Pigs February 10, 2010 GREEK public deficit worries have been widely reported in the mainstream media. The government’s problems with its budget led to severe pressure on Greek sovereign bond yields and credit default swap spreads, which at one point were over 400 basis points over equivalent German sovereign yields. On 3 February the European Union executive announced that [...]
UK AT RISK | THERE’S ROOM IN THE STY February 10, 2010 CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling might have hoped that the Greek sovereign debt crisis would draw attention away from the parlous state of Britain’s own public finances. He will have been sorely disappointed – the Eurozone’s troubles have only highlighted the problems facing other highly indebted countries such as the UK and the US. The ratings agencies [...]