Best of the Brokers for 30 July 2013 July 29, 2013 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com GREGGS Oriel has a “sell” rating and target of 340p in anticipation of disappointing first-half results for the high street baking chain on 6 August. The analysts believe that weak demand in a troubled half has led to falling trade, and have pencilled [...]
London Report: FTSE edges up despite drop in Barclays stock July 29, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 edged higher yesterday, with healthcare and media sectors bolstered by transatlantic merger activity, helping outweigh a steep sell off in Barclays. Drugmaker Shire – long viewed as a takeover target – added 2.4 per cent after US generic rival Perrigo agreed to buy Ireland’s Elan for $8.6bn (£5.6bn). A proposed merger between [...]
New York Report: US shares fall as Fed decision due tomorrow July 29, 2013 US STOCKS fell yesterday, pulling back before this week’s Federal Reserve meeting that could signal when the Fed is going to begin reducing its bond purchases aimed at helping the economic recovery. Losses were led by the energy and financial sectors, with both the S&P energy index and S&P financial index down 0.8 per cent. [...]
CNBC Comment: Ethical vigilance isn’t easy for Church July 29, 2013 MANAGING God’s money would test the patience of Job. The archbishop of Canterbury discovered this last week when his attempt to take on payday lender Wonga exposed the Church of England to accusations of hypocrisy. Justin Welby locked horns with Wonga because the company’s interest charges attract legitimate concerns. But what came next was the [...]
Daily FX: Analyst picks July 29, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Closed long Aussie-yen. Short Aussie-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few weeks The bearish bias on the Aussie has been revived, and there are two main reasons to look short early this week: Chinese data has worsened since second [...]
Any Other Business – 30/07 July 29, 2013 ■ Before he starts for England in the third Ashes test on Thursday, England spinner Graeme Swann (pictured) was spotted dabbling in a game of poker at the Ritz in Mayfair last week. Among the competitive crowd of players including cricketers James Anderson and Steve Finn and rugby players Danny Care and Ugo Monye, were [...]
Bank of Italy to inspect finances of top lenders as bad loans could exceed £216bn July 29, 2013 The Bank of Italy is said to be inspecting the finances of some of the country's top lenders, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal. As expected, the Bank of Italy is investigating about NPLs ratio in Italian banks’ balance sheets. — Fabrizio Goria (@FGoria) July 29, 2013 According to Linkiesta, non-performing loans could [...]
ECB set to publish rules for Emergency Liquidity Assistance July 29, 2013 The European Central Bank is going to publish details of rules for Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), according to German newspaper Faz. Some rough translation from the Faz piece below: According to information from the FAZ, the Governing Council has decided that the rules for the controversial emergency loans (Emergency Liquidity Assistance ELA) to publish. This [...]
Travelodge warns that abuse of levies threatens London’s hotel sector July 29, 2013 Hotel chain Travelodge has warned that the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is putting the capital's hotel sector under threat (release). CIL was introduced by the previous Government with the intention of ensuring financial clarity for developers in a bid to ensure developments make a fair contribution to infrastructure whilst providing an alternative solution or replacement [...]
Why is Mike Ashley in trouble over zero hour contracts? July 29, 2013 Trade union Unite has called for an urgent meeting with Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley over the treatment of Sports Direct staff after it was found that all of it’s part-time employees – accounting for 90 per cent of its workforce – are employed on zero hour contracts. A zero hour contract requires employees to [...]