OSBORNE LINES UP LONDON FOR TRADING January 16, 2012 Chancellor George Osborne got the City’s seal of approval yesterday when he spoke at the Asia Financial Forum in Hong Kong. Osborne has brokered a deal lining London up as a powerhouse for trading the Chinese currency, the renminbi. He is set to visit Beijing and Tokyo today and tomorrow in a bid to strengthen [...]
Fitch worried on Russian politics January 16, 2012 Ratings agency Fitch revised Russia’s outlook to “stable” from “positive” yesterday. Rising “political uncertainty” and the global economic outlook were both blamed. “Political risk, reflected by poor governance indicators, is a long-standing weakness compared with most other triple-B rated countries,” Fitch announced. Such political worries increase the risk of capital flight, the agency claimed, which [...]
Many graduates unfit for work January 16, 2012 One fifth of employers believe school leavers make better employees than university graduates according to research from Adecco Group, the UK’s largest recruiter. The research revealed employer concerns that universities are giving unrealistic expectations of work and are failing to equip graduates with critical interpersonal, IT and even basic literacy skills. Graduates agree, with nearly [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 16, 2012 Signia Wealth Signia Wealth has appointed Martin King as managing director to lead its new Birmingham office, which will serve ultra high net worth individuals in the West Midlands as part of CEO Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe’s expansion plans for the business. King joins the wealth manager from UBS Wealth Management, where he founded the Midlands office [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 16, 2012 FEDERAL GRID COMPANY (GDR) Goldman Sachs transfers its coverage of Russia’s largest electricity transmission company grid from the local stock exchange to its global depositary receipt listing in London, rating it as a “buy” with a target price of $7.50. The broker says news flow on Russian power utilities reached its most negative in autumn [...]
FTSE rises as investors shift gaze from Eurozone to China January 16, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares rose yesterday, led by miners, as investors’ attention shifted from the Euro zone debt crisis towards economic data from China. Mining stocks tracked metals prices higher as markets eyed a batch of Chinese data due today, including GDP and industrial production, for further clues on the outlook for demand. “There’s a perception [...]
World shares lift despite dip in Asia January 16, 2012 EUROPEAN shares and the euro gradually recovered yesterday from early losses triggered by the mass downgrade of Euro zone sovereign ratings last week, but they still looked vulnerable amid rising fears of a disorderly Greek debt default. Markets had already reacted to the downgrades on Friday, and European assets steadied by yesterday afternoon, but activity [...]
The Deputy Prime Minister thinks we are irresponsible – the feeling is mutual, Nick January 16, 2012 NICK Clegg wants to give tax breaks to John Lewis style, employee-owned companies. This is just the latest salvo in the “responsible capitalism” debate. But when a government dictates which forms of capitalism are responsible, and which ones aren’t, it overrides the individual morality of its citizens – and not for the better. After all, [...]
The global battle for the internet is about to begin January 16, 2012 2012 is the year that freedom online will be challenged. In the UK and the US, proposals are being introduced for website blocking in the name of copyright and child protection. In America, the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) is already causing seismic protests. But in 2012 we will also see a push to [...]
Do not blame Opec for a rise in the price of oil January 16, 2012 WHEN discussing oil prices, it is common to encounter two views that are confused: the first is that Opec, the cartel to which many of the world’s oil-producing countries belong, sets the price of oil, the second is that it can cause inflation by increasing the price of oil through restriction of the quantity it [...]
