‘Bond market tantrum risks’: Gilt traders brace for Labour leftward pivot as Starmer future uncertain
Annuities heavyweights Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance unveil £670m merger as pension changes bite August 11, 2015 Annuities giant Just Retirement has announced it is buying Partnership Assurance in a £670m all-share merger, after massive changes to the UK's pension regime caused sales of annuities to plummet. Shares in Just Retirement rose 1.66 per cent to 202p in early trading, while Partnership's shares jumped 8.9 per cent to 168p on the announcement [...]
Russian economy contracts 4.6 per cent in second quarter August 10, 2015 Another bad day for the Russian economy, after figures published today showed it contracted 4.6 per cent in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, missing even analysts' pessimistic expectations of a 4.5 per cent contraction. Although the contraction was larger than feared, the fact GDP fell hardly came as a surprise: with the [...]
Housebuilder shares rise as government launches £36m fund to build first-time buyer homes on brownfield sites August 10, 2015 Shares in the UK's largest housebuilders rose today after the government unveiled two funds collectively worth £36m aimed at building homes for first-time buyers on brownfield sites. Communities secretary Greg Clark said a £26m fund will be used to acquire brownfield sites to provide land for starter homes, while another, £10m, fund is aimed at [...]
Public Health England warns “neglected” over-40s to get more sleep, stop smoking and reduce alcohol comsumption August 10, 2015 The UK's public health body will launch a new campaign warning those between the ages of 40 and 60 to live more healthily after it found those in middle ages are "neglected". In a document published last month, Public Health England said because most health campaigns target the very young and the very old, the [...]
Sunsets, good music and great TV: These are the top 10 keys to happiness August 10, 2015 Whole industries have been built on the back of schemes to help people find happiness – but it seems the ultimate key to joy is surprisingly straightforward: a good, old-fashioned sunset. That's according to a new study, which found 52 per cent of people cite beautiful sunsets as one of the top 10 pleasures that [...]
Dixons Carphone share price dips after massive data breach leaves 2.4m customers at risk August 10, 2015 Shares in Dixons Carphone, the company behind Carphone Warehouse, which over the weekend admitted it had been targeted in a "sophisticated" cyber attack which left 2.4m customers' payment details vulnerable, fell 1.7 per cent to 448.26p as the market opened. However, they later regained some of those losses, rising to 450p, 1.3 per cent lower than Friday's [...]
Hargreaves Lansdown poaches IG Group finance chief Chris Hill August 10, 2015 Hargreaves Lansdown has nabbed IG Group finance boss Chris Hill, it said in a statement this morning. The financial adviser said Hill, who has been in his position for four years, will take over from Simon Cleveland, a partner at Deloitte who has been acting as interim chief financial officer at Hargreaves Lansdown, in March [...]
The Royal Mint’s £100 coins were so popular, it’s had to issue a new edition August 7, 2015 You could say it's a license to print money: the Royal Mint has issued a second edition of its massive £100 coins, after the first iteration sold out. Only 50,000 of the new coins, made from two ounces of 999 fine silver, will be made. And while the last version showed Big Ben, this time [...]
Brace yourselves: The Victoria Line is about to partially shut down for three weeks with no trains between Seven Sisters and Walthamstow Central August 7, 2015 Regular passengers on the Blue Bullet, aka the Victoria Line, should brace themselves, after Transport for London (TfL) warned part of it is about to shut down for three weeks. From tomorrow, the line between Walthamstow and Seven Sisters will be closed until 20 August, it said – and while services between Seven Sisters and [...]
UK exports hit by strong pound as trade deficit widens August 7, 2015 The UK's trade deficit widened in June as the strong pound hit exporters – although the £1.6bn figure was still considerably lower than the March's six-month high of £3.2bn. Exports fell £300m to £24.9bn, while imports rose £500m to £34.1bn, a release by the Office for National Statistics showed today. As the Eurozone continued to [...]
