I’ll battle on, vows out-of-sorts Safina May 25, 2010 AILING Dinara Safina insists she can rediscover her best form despite crashing out of the French Open to a 39-year-old ex-retiree at Roland Garros. Former world No1 Safina, now seeded ninth after falling down the rankings, continued her miserable 2010 with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 defeat to Japan’s Kimiko Date Krumm, who only returned to [...]
Morgan taken aback by Test chance May 25, 2010 TWENTY20 world-beater Eoin Morgan has admitted his shock at being called up to England’s Test squad, but does not believe he will have trouble reproducing his one-day heroics in the longer form of the game. Morgan’s inclusion in a 12-man squad for the two-match series against Bangladesh, starting tomorrow at Lord’s, is a reward for [...]
Bears snare Jayasuriya May 25, 2010 CRICKET: Worcestershire have secured the signing of veteran Sri Lankan all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya for the forthcoming Twenty20 campaign. The 40-year-old has played 110 Tests, 444 one-day internationals and 30 international Twenty20 matches during a glittering career, and replaces Australian Steve Smith after five matches of the competition.
Laird secures Open spot May 25, 2010 GOLF: Scotland’s Martin Laird fired a second round 63 to earn a place at the Open Championship in his homeland at St Andrews in July. The 27-year-old finished fourth in the 36-hole qualifier in Texas on eight-under-par, three shots behind winner Tim Petrovic. Of the big names to miss out were England’s Brian Davis, Boo [...]
Catt laps up new Exiles deal May 25, 2010 RUGBY UNION: Mike Catt has signed a contract extension at London Irish – just days after ending his 17-year playing career. The World Cup winner, who joined the Exiles in 2004, has followed the lead of Toby Booth and Dave Ellis in penning long-term deals with the club and will continue his role as a [...]
Embrace the alternative May 25, 2010 A RECENT survey by Mercer, the consultancy, found that nearly 5 per cent of UK pension funds and 14 per cent of European pension funds are looking to increase their allocation to fund of hedge funds. And well they might – over the past 10 years the HFRI Strategic Index, which measures the performance of [...]
CONTAGION IN EUROZONE IS AN OPPORTUNITY May 25, 2010 James Abate, PSigma AM In the investment world, the impact from Greece’s fiscal crisis on the euro (and related concerns about sterling) has led to a stronger US dollar boosting returns for non-dollar based investors in US funds. In spite of this, UK investors’ global portfolios are still significantly underweight the US, relative to the [...]
EU’s Maginot line policy is a fudge May 25, 2010 DICK TURPIN MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS SO THE $1 trillion European bailout just isn’t working. So ein Mist, what a dung-heap, mutters German Chancellor Merkel, lugubriously. But investors know that Europe has long excelled at self-delusion. For example, in 1929 somehow the French convinced themselves that the Nazis could be kept out by a wall. As [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS May 25, 2010 AGRIBUSINESS FUND COMES ONSHORE A new onshore Global Agribusiness Fund by First State Investments will aim to deliver low-risk, long-term returns to UK and European investors from a portfolio of between 25 and 75 stocks. It has announced its intention to take advantage of what it sees as “a combination of rising demand and constrained [...]
Rollercoaster forex markets are here to stay May 25, 2010 IN THE current environment it can be difficult to judge where the financial markets are going even one month ahead let alone 10 years, but that is just what UBS, the investment bank, has done. It published its FX mega trends 2010-2020 report earlier this week, and the overriding theme is volatility. The bank notes [...]
