London house prices: Peckham pre-fab shack auctioned for almost £1m November 4, 2015 More London house price madness: a tiny pre-fab bungalow on a street corner in Peckham has sold for just under £1m. The tumble-down bungalow, on the corner of Costa Street and McDermott Street, close to Peckham Rye Common, went under the hammer with a guide price of £590,000 – but sold for £950,000, at an auction on [...]
Mapped: The Crossrail effect – from Tottenham Hale to New Southgate, how London’s largest infrastructure project has affected house prices November 4, 2015 After years of talking about it, Transport for London finally began its consultation on Crossrail 2 last week, proposing a new route which will run from Cheshunt to Epsom, Chessington and Shepperton. But while the consultation has just begun, the second branch of Crossrail may have already began taking an effect on house prices [...]
UK services sector returns to growth in October as business activity jumps November 4, 2015 A bit of good news for those in the UK's dominant services sector: the sector bounced back in October, after a disappointing September. The Markit/CIPS services business activity sector rose to 54.9 in October, above the consensus of 54.5, way above the 50 point which denotes expansion, and up from the disappointing reading of 53.3 [...]
Worried about your pension investments? China’s staged a glorious return to the 10 best performing funds November 4, 2015 Following the "Great Fall of China" in August, investor confidence in Asian and other emerging markets has dipped, causing pension savers and individual investors to feel the heat. But there was a bit of good news this morning, after analysis from asset manager Hargreaves Lansdown suggested China-focused funds have bounced back. In fact, of the company's [...]
Price of petrol and diesel falls for the fourth consecutive month in October – and comes close to its 2009 low November 4, 2015 Petrol and diesel prices continued to slide for the fourth month in a row in October, new figures suggest, with diesel hovering close to the low price it hit in 2009. Unleaded fell to 107.82p during October, from 109.45p at the start, making filling an average family car 90p cheaper, RAC said this morning. That's [...]
UK house prices: Persimmon share price falls despite jump in sales November 4, 2015 Are housebuilders finally feeling the heat? FTSE-listed builder Persimmon reported a 12 per cent sales hike in the third quarter this morning – but shares continued to slide after the sector had a spot of bother with a broker yesterday. The figures Sales were 12 per cent higher in the period since it reported its half year results on [...]
Advertising giant WPP buys majority stake in digital media buyer Essence November 4, 2015 A sign of the times? Ad giant WPP announced this morning it had bought a majority stake in Essence, a London-based digital media buyer. In a statement this morning, WPP said Essence, which was founded in London in 2005 and manages media spend of more than $700m (£453m), "blends data science, objective media and captivating experiences to [...]
Ford and General Motors US sales hit full speed – as Volkswagen eases on the brakes November 3, 2015 As the emissions scandal of Europe's largest car marker continues apace, across the pond, things have been rather less fraught, after both General Motors and Ford reported encouraging sales in October. Even Volkswagen managed to edge up… General Motors sold 262,993 cars in the US in October, 16 per cent higher than this time last year. [...]
Twitter makes changes its “Favourite” star to a “Like” heart, everyone goes nuts November 3, 2015 Collective hysteria strikes again: Twitter has changed its star-shaped "Favourite" icon to a heart-shaped "Like" button. And the whole of Twitter has gone berserk. https://twitter.com/twitter/status/661558661131558915 In a blog post today, the company said the star icon could be confusing, "especially to newcomers". "You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favourite." [...]
Candy Crush maker King Digital bought by US games giant Activision Blizzard for $5.9bn November 3, 2015 Activision Blizzard, the US gaming giant behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, announced this morning it's bought iPhone games developer King Digital, the European company behind the notoriously addictive Candy Crush, for $5.9bn (£3.8bn). The company said it will pay $18 per share for the company, a 20 per cent premium over King's closing price [...]
