Home loans plummet August 27, 2008 Deals for new houses remained close to a record low last month, with approvals for mortgages 65 per cent lower than a year ago. Mortgage approvals totalled 22,448 last month, according to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), just above June’s series low of 22,369 but almost 12,000 below the average of the past six months. [...]
Pound slumps as recession fears mount August 27, 2008 Prospect of interest rate cuts pushes sterling and the euro down as the greenback surges Growing recession fears and expectations of interest rate cuts sent the pound tumbling to a two year low against the dollar yesterday. Markets are now pricing in a 75 basis point cut in interest rates over the next 12 months, [...]
Bet on inflation to beat the downturn August 26, 2008 The market climate has created just the right conditions to make a mint, says Katie Hope It’s pretty grim out there at the moment. Food and fuel prices are rising at the fastest rate on record, contributing to soaring inflation. Even Bank of England governor Mervyn King, who is charged with keeping inflation at around [...]
Plunge into a dark pool in the new era of trading platforms August 26, 2008 Project Turquoise is here, and promises to shake up the world of trading. But what does it mean for you?, asks Katie Hope Within two weeks, Project Turquoise will launch in full. The hotly awaited new trading platform set up by a consortium of nine investment banks, started quietly almost two weeks ago trading just [...]
How wave power can help you to read the markets August 26, 2008 The markets are anything but random, say proponents of Elliott Waves. Understanding them will improve your trading. Most people are led to believe that the markets are completely random and that there is no way of forecasting the next move, either up or down. But others seem to make large amounts of profits catching the [...]
The Olympic games are over – but Asia is still where the growth is to be found August 26, 2008 It was Aztec Camera who once sang “Summer in the City and the air is still”. I don’t know about the air, but the equity markets have been relatively quiet over the last week, except for a Warren Buffett induced bounce on Friday. Thank goodness – I don’t think any of us needed another August [...]
Indian tech giant snaps up UK’s Axon August 26, 2008 Indian software services giant Infosys yesterday said it had agreed to buy the London-listed IT consultancy Axon in a deal worth £407.1m – the largest ever takeover of a technology firm by an Indian player. Infosys, India’s second largest software services firm, offered 600p a share for Axon, a premium of 33 per cent on [...]
Turmoil is as bad as the 70s, warns deputy governor August 26, 2008 The current financial downturn is at least as bad as the 1970s, according to the Bank of England’s new deputy governor who has warned that there is no end in sight to the downturn. In an interview with the BBC, economist Charlie Bean, who took over as deputy governor earlier this year, said the current [...]
Fresh call for BE deal August 26, 2008 Invesco, the largest single shareholder in British Energy, is meeting today with government representatives to push for a merger between the UK’s nuclear group and gas supplier Centrica. Invesco’s head of investment Neil Woodford will lay out his plans to the Shareholder Executive, the body that manages government financial interest in public companies. Last week [...]
Fresh blow for Lehman after Korean investor warned off August 26, 2008 Lehman Brothers, the investment bank beset by worries over asset sales and the future of boss Richard Fuld Jr, was dealt another blow yesterday after potential investor Korea Development Bank (KDB) was warned off an approach. South Korea’s top financial regulator Jun Kwang-woo, warned KDB that it should take a “cautious approach”, after the state-run [...]