Morgan Crucible ups dividend as revenues increase August 11, 2011 INDUSTRIAL materials group Morgan Crucible yesterday upped its interim dividend by 20 per cent, as revenues at the company rose to £560m. Underlying operating profit at the group increased by 49 per cent to £71.5m, from £48m last year, as revenues jumped 11 per cent from £501.1m. Morgan Crucible said it was entering the second [...]
Cobham wins MoD contract August 11, 2011 British defence contractor Cobham yesterday announced that it had won a £10m four-year contract with the UK Ministry of Defence for the provision of a flight inspection service. The deal provides for the calibration of navigation and landing aids at all Ministry of Defence airfields worldwide.
Network Rail looks to cut costs August 11, 2011 Network Rail has taken on six firms including Morgan Sindall and Balfour Beatty to help save money on its rail upgrade works. The rail operator said improvements will take weeks rather than months under the new national plan, and costs on the £750m scheme will be cut by up to 20 per cent.
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 11, 2011 ST JAMES’S PLACE Morgan Stanley maintains the wealth management company’s “equal-weight” rating, with a 12-month target price of 408p. The move comes following solid interim results, with shares having performed very strongly relative to the broker’s year to date. With a focus on low capital intensity unit-linked products, no long-term debt and little on-balance sheet [...]
US jobs data strikes optimistic note for economy August 11, 2011 The number of Americans claiming new jobless benefits fell to a four-month low last week, a sliver of hope for an economy battered for days by a credit rating downgrade and falling share prices. The jobless claims data released by the Labor Department has eased concerns that the economy was heading back into recession as [...]
£2.5 trillion wiped off world stocks August 11, 2011 An estimated $4 trillion (£2.47 trillion) has been wiped off the value of world stocks this month on concerns the euro zone debt crisis is spreading to Italy and Spain and hurting Europe’s banking system, and the global economy is falling into recession. The sum wiped off the MSCI All-Country World Index – about one [...]
Cameron: Police tactics were wrong August 11, 2011 Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to crack down on street gangs as a national priority and said rioters behind the country’s worst violence in decades would be hunted and punished. “The fightback has well and truly begun,” he told an emergency session of parliament, acknowledging that police numbers and tactics had been inadequate at [...]
FTSE hit by fresh volatility August 11, 2011 The top share index pared gains by midday, as concerns over the stability of European banks in the face of the global debt and growth crisis took the wind out of an earlier advance. Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group swung violently on worries banks will sustain further losses associated with exposure [...]
Emergency borrowing from ECB soars August 11, 2011 Emergency overnight borrowing from the European Central Bank surged, figures showed, as banks waited for an injection of ECB six-month funds and amid fears about the health of Italian and French banks. Banks took over 4 billion euros of overnight funds from the ECB, the highest since mid-May. Banks have to pay 2.25 per cent [...]
Murdoch says Carey next in line for top job not his son August 11, 2011 Rupert Murdoch acknowledged for the first time publicly that his son James is not the preferred choice to succeed him as News Corp chief executive, at least in the near-term. In the clearest indication yet that the phone hacking scandal enveloping News Corp’s UK operations has damaged the succession ambitions of James Murdoch, his father [...]