ASDA sales growth slows February 21, 2012 Supermarket firm Asda suffered a slowdown in sales growth as shoppers were squeezed by rising prices and muted wages growth. Britain’s second-biggest supermarket chain said today that sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, rose 1 per cent in the fourteen weeks to 7 January. Asda said underlying sales [...]
FTSE Flat as Greek bailout gets the nod February 21, 2012 THE FTSE 100 was broadly flat this morning as Eurozone leaders agreed a second bailout for Greece after weeks of tortuous negotiations. Investors overall were encouraged by the move but there were still fears that the €130bn lifeline was only a short term fix for Greece which is drowning in debt. The deal was largely [...]
UK public finances in bigger than expected surplus February 21, 2012 UK public finances posted their biggest monthly surplus in four years in January, driven by a drop in local government borrowing and a modest rise in tax receipts, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. The figures will come as a relief for Chancellor George Osborne after ratings agency Moody’s warned last week that [...]
Amec launches £400m buyback as profits jump February 21, 2012 Engineering group AMEC said it would launch a £400m share buyback programme and raised its dividend by 15 per cent, as it posted a jump in 2011 profit alongside a positive outlook for the current year. AMEC, whose customers operate in the mining, oil and gas, nuclear power and renewable energy sectors, on Tuesday reported [...]
Eurozone agrees second Greece bailout February 21, 2012 Eurozone finance ministers sealed a €130bn bailout for Greece to avert a chaotic default in March after persuading private bondholders to take greater losses and Athens to commit to deep cuts. After 13 hours of talks, ministers finalised measures to cut Greece’s debt to 120.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2020, a fraction [...]
Oil surges on Iranian fears February 20, 2012 OIL prices surged yesterday after a defiant Iran banned sales to Britain and France, amid growing fears over the country’s nuclear ambitions. Brent crude nudged over $121 a barrel – the highest level for eight months – as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Tehran to assess first hand the Islamic Republic’s controversial [...]
Talks over Greek deal drag into small hours February 20, 2012 TALKS over a Greek bailout spilled into the early hours of this morning as negotiators edged closer to a deal to cut Greek debt to a sustainable level. Japanese markets opened lower after hours of wrangling in Brussels were yet to produce a deal. Minister did agree on measures expected to reduce Greece’s debt to [...]
Laws: target high earners February 20, 2012 DAVID LAWS, the former chief secretary to the Treasury, has mounted pressure on the chancellor George Osborne to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000 in next month’s Budget, saying it was time to signal the end of austerity on household budgets. Laws told BBC’s Newsnight yesterday that the Liberal Democrats would fund the move [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 20, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES US CORPORATES SHY TO OFFER GUIDANCE US companies are more uncertain about the future than at any point since the financial crisis, with just one in five of the country’s biggest corporations making any predictions as they published fourth-quarter results. TRANSOCEAN WILL NOT PROPOSE A DIVIDEND Shares in Transocean, the owner of the [...]
May splits Border Agency February 20, 2012 THE UK Border Agency is to be dismantled, after a critical report found hundreds of thousands of people had been allowed into the country without full security checks. Home secretary Theresa May told parliament yesterday that the UK Border Force, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the borders, would be split from the wider Border [...]