Chaos as fear over break-up of euro grows December 14, 2011 STOCKS tumbled on renewed fears that Eurozone leaders would not be able to resolve the crisis soon, as Italy was forced to pay record interest rates to borrow and industrial output data pointed to the heightened risk of renewed European recession. In the UK, the Financial Services Authority is in talks with banks over plans [...]
Credit Agricole plunges after €2.5bn write-down December 14, 2011 CREDIT Agricole yesterday wrote off more than €2.5bn (£2.1bn) of assets and said it is cutting 2,350 jobs globally as it warned it would sink to a loss. France’s third-largest listed bank also said it would close its equity derivatives and commodities businesses and leave 21 of the 55 nations in which it operates to [...]
Safe haven UK sees gilt yields at record lows December 14, 2011 UK BORROWING costs fell to record lows yesterday as investors scrambled to British government debt as a safe haven. Yields fell to 2.21 per cent on £3bn of gilts maturing in 2022. Bonds on the secondary markets continued to attract buyers, pushing yields down to a low of 2.081. As a result investors took the [...]
Men hit hard by drops in employment December 14, 2011 UNEMPLOYMENT hit its highest level since 1994 in the three months to October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday, with men faring worse than women. Employment fell by 63,000, or 0.2 per cent, compared with the previous three months, taking the total to 29.1m. Unemployment rose 128,000 to 2.64m, or 8.3 per cent, [...]
Barclays mulls pay clawback December 14, 2011 BARCLAYS is considering clawing back part of its executives’ bonuses over the bank’s £1bn mis-selling of insurance, chief executive Bob Diamond was forced to admit yesterday. After a testy exchange with Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the influential Treasury select committee of MPs, Diamond eventually conceded: “We are taking into account in our businesses that impact [...]
Commerzbank ups Tier 1 capital through buyback December 14, 2011 STRUGGLING German lender Commerzbank yesterday shored up its core Tier 1 capital to the tune of €700m, by buying back hybrid debt from bondholders. The bank, which earlier this week was rumoured to be in state aid discussions with the German government, said it would pay around €643m to buy back securities with a nominal [...]
Watchdog finds MF Global funds December 14, 2011 US regulators now have a full picture of money transfers in the final days of bankrupt brokerage MF Global, and are working to sort out which transactions were legitimate, a top official said yesterday. As a bankruptcy judge told MF Global it can finance its bankruptcy with cash pledged as collateral to lender JPMorgan Chase, [...]
SUPERGROUP BEATS GLOOM TO POST SALES RISE December 14, 2011 Supergroup’s founder Julian Dunkerton (inset) said the group has begun reporting like-for-like sales figures to stop “people getting the wrong message” after problems with its warehousing system. Like-for-like sales rose four per cent in the six months to 30 October, while pre-tax profits rose 39 per cent to £20.3m.
Miners fall as FTSE ups free float baseline December 14, 2011 FRESNILLO shares slumped more than 10 per cent yesterday after index provider FTSE said it would make companies list at least a quarter of their share capital on the London Stock Exchange before they could gain a place in its sought-after indices. FTSE raised its threshold for the minimum level of free float offered by [...]
Government to consult on employment tribunal fees December 14, 2011 EMPLOYERS’ groups welcomed the government’s plans to charge disgruntled employees for access to tribunals yesterday. The government is seeking to bring down the costs of running tribunals, which cost the taxpayer £84.2m last year to process 218,000 claims. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly launched a consultation on introducing fees at the start of a claim followed [...]