Raise a glass: Sunak set to overhaul alcohol tax regime October 17, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to overhaul the UK’s alcohol tax regime to give English wines an advantage over foreign wines. Sunak is preparing to scrap onerous levies on sparkling wine and bring the tax charged in line with the same rate as still wine, wiping an estimated 83p off bottles of bubbly, according to [...]
Bank of England dove flies against the wind on interest rates October 15, 2021 A member of the Bank of England’s rate setting committee has broken ranks and taken a more dovish stance against heating inflation. Silvana Tenreyro, an external member of the Bank’s monetary policy committee, warned it would be “self-defeating” to hike interest rates to hose down temporary bout of inflation. More to follow.
Despite rise of 40 per cent so far this year, bank stocks have more room to run October 15, 2021 Bank stocks have already risen nearly 40 per cent this year, but National Securities Chief Market Strategist Art Hogan says they have more room to run. Watch the full report.
FTSE 100 tops pre-pandemic high on commodity rally October 15, 2021 Soaring commodity prices boosted industrial stocks on London markets this morning, lifting the capital’s premier FTSE 100 index to its highest level since before the pandemic. The blue-chip index advanced to 7,242.73 points in early trading, before pulling back slightly. More to follow.
Labour squeeze shows no sign of cooling before Christmas October 15, 2021 Worker shortages that are threatening to throw a spanner into retailers’ Christmas operations show now signs of cooling. Over the last week, 235,000 job postings were created online, with a noticeable jump in demand for sales and retail workers, research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found. The uplift was partly driven by a [...]
US miner Bens Creek seeks London float October 14, 2021 American coal miner Bens Creek has announced plans to float on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange this month. The company – which owns a metallurgical coal mine, wash plant, and rail loading facility situated on a 10,000 acre plot that covers parts of West Virginia and Kentucky – plans to [...]
TradingView hits $3bn valuation amid retail investor boom October 14, 2021 TradingView has completed a $298m (£218m) funding round led by Tiger Global brining its valuation to an eye-watering $3bn. The website, which provides retail investors with free market data and insights, reported a 400 per cent jump in membership accounts and a 237 per cent increase in visitors over the past 18 months as lockdowns [...]
UK investors play it safe, while Chinese take risks and Indians are all over crypto October 14, 2021 Affluent to ultra-high-net worth investors in the UK are the most conservative in terms of investment risk among international peers, according to new research, shared exclusively with City A.M. today. More than half of wealthy UK-based investors rated themselves as conservative in terms of their approach to risk, with 20 per cent describing themselves as [...]
Boots sales knocked by dip in footfall but buoyed by Covid-19 test demand October 14, 2021 Sales hit £34bn in the three months to 31 August at Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), the combined group of pharmacy chains Walgreens and Boots. Boots UK pharmacy sales lifted 11.4 per cent in comparison with last year, signalling strong demand for pharmacy services, notably Covid-19 tests. While retail sales jumped 15 per cent. High street [...]
Sunak deaf to industry calls to overhaul business rates October 14, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has ignored calls from industry chiefs to shake up the business rate regime at the next budget. According to The Telegraph, government plans to overhaul the business rate system have been “thrown into the long grass”. The Chancellor has not had enough time to consider the effects of wholesale changes to the [...]