Knight Frank sees upturn in property August 18, 2009 THE property downturn has now reached the bottom, according to Knight Frank derivatives head Richard White. Property derivatives are investments that allow investors to speculate on rising or falling values without having to purchase the asset. The UK commercial property market has fallen by 44 per cent since its peak in Summer 2007 to July [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 18, 2009 REGUSPanmure Gordon downgraded its recommendation from “buy” to “hold” as the firm’s shares inch towards the broker’s target price of 81p after a strong run. The company will come into focus next week when it reports its interim results and Panmure expects pressures to emerge in occupancy and pricing, and is tempted to lock in [...]
CITY MOVES Who’s switching jobs August 18, 2009 RBC Capital MarketsThe corporate and investment banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada has hired Phil Halper as a director in its Scandinavian rates trading team, based in London. Halper joins the firm with 15 years of market experience, having most recently worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was a senior [...]
Bleak outlook means that the yen is going to rise and rise August 18, 2009 JAPAN’S return to growth for the first time since the first quarter of 2008 ought to have been cause for celebration in the markets. Hot on France and Germany’s heels, Japan grew 0.9 per cent in the three months to June on the previous quarter, putting the annual rate at 3.7 per cent. But even [...]
AUSTRALIA WILL NOT RAISE RATES August 18, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT OVER the past several months, the Australian dollar has been the most appealing currency for the recovery trade. Unlike its G20 counterparts, the Australian economy barely felt the blows of the global recession, registering only one negative quarter of growth before rebounding in the second quarter to record a [...]
The beautiful game? It’s nothing without lawyers August 18, 2009 IT is hard to imagine the chant of “we love lawyers” rolling down the Kop, but as another season kicks off, football may be surprised to know that it owes the legal profession a considerable debt. It was a solicitor, Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who had the idea to form an organisation that became the Football [...]
THINK HARD BEFORE YOU GO INTO LAW August 18, 2009 SPEAKER’S CORNERDES HUDSONCHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE LAW SOCIETY NOBODY who reads the legal press can fail to have noticed recently that the legal profession is feeling the pain of the recession. Solicitors are facing tough times and there are fewer places for newly-qualified solicitors than there have been for years. Becoming a solicitor is still a [...]
A car for all seasons August 18, 2009 EPIC is the word. For a person who doesn’t much care for heights, I’m doing pretty well. I’ve just scaled the terra-pod, a 200ft metal version of a hill-climb. Despite the nerves, I made it to the top, having been told that it’s the best view ever when you get up there. But then it [...]
Goldman Sachs backs banks and helps to lift the markets August 18, 2009 THE FTSE 100 closed 0.9 per cent higher yesterday, led by gains in banks and miners which recovered from losses in the previous session, while data showed inflation held steady in July. The large-cap index closed 40.77 points higher at 4,685.78, recovering from a 1.4 per cent drop on Monday, its biggest one-day percentage loss [...]
Wall St boosted by upbeat retail giants August 18, 2009 US stocks rose yesterday, rebounding after sharp losses in the previous session, as better-than-expected results from big retailers encouraged investors to get back into the market. Results at consumer giants Home Depot, Target and department store operator Saks were helped by cost-cutting as revenue growth remained slack. The trend has dominated earnings season, but investors [...]
