Imperial Tobacco growth brands outperform the market May 7, 2014 Imperial Tobacco has reported a profit before tax of £648m for the six months to 31 March, down from the £830m seen over the same period the previous year. The company's revenue suffered a five per cent decline to £12.7bn, with adjusted earnings per share edging down by one per cent to 89.6p. However, there [...]
Asian markets slide as Ukraine crisis escalates May 7, 2014 Asian markets have fallen to their lowest point in four weeks, as tensions remain high in Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists. On Monday, Kiev said four Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and an army helicopter had been shot down close to the city of Sloviansk. The following day 30 pro-Russian separatists were reported [...]
Blinkx: Harvard blog post caused $15m in damages May 6, 2014 Harvard professor Ben Edelman’s blog post that claimed Blinkx had links with companies that use “deceptive tactics” has caused up to $15m (£8.83m) in damage to the online video advertising firm’s sales. Blinkx indicated the level of damage that had been caused during its results call with analysts this morning, Numis analyst Paul Richards said: [...]
Bitcoin CEOs pull out of global summit amid regulatory crackdown May 6, 2014 The CEOs of five Chinese Bitcoin exchanges have pulled out of the Global Bitcoin Summit, reports CoinDesk. The chief executives of OKCoin, Huobi, BTC China, BtcTrade and CHBTC said they would no longer attend large-scale Bitcoin conferences and events. In further bad news for the cryptocurrency, BTC China announced today that it had suspended yuan [...]
Barclays sees investment bank income drop 28pc May 6, 2014 Barclays has reported a rise in statutory profit before tax of 18 per cent to £1.8bn for the first quarter of 2014. However, adjusted profit before tax took a hit and was down five per cent to £1.7bn. Investment bank income dropped 28 per cent to £2.5bn, with adjusted income falling by 14 per cent [...]
Aussie dollar climbs as central bank holds rates May 6, 2014 The Australian dollar has risen to a near one-week high as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) held interest rates at 2.5 per cent. The RBA anticipates a period of interest rate stability as the Aussie dollar remains high. The Australian central bank expects to see improvement in the labour market in the near future [...]
Pfizer confirms offer hike for AstraZeneca as it argues case to the PM May 2, 2014 Pfizer has upped its offer for UK drugs giant AstraZeneca by £3bn and has sent a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron outlining the benefits of such a deal. The drug company's improved offer amounts to £50 per share. Pfizer confirmed that should the deal go ahead it would establish corporate and tax residency in [...]
InterContinental set to return $750m to shareholders May 2, 2014 Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) has said it is pleased with its start to the year reporting a growth in revenue per available room of six per cent for the first quarter. The rise was driven by an increase in occupancy 2.4 percentage points and a rise in the average daily rate of 1.9 per cent. [...]
Mixed morning for Asian markets ahead of US jobs report May 2, 2014 Asian markets are a mixed bad this morning as investors await the release of US payrolls later in the session. Economists estimate the US will report the biggest increase in non-farm payrolls since November last year, reports Bloomberg. The survey of 94 economists forecasts that 218,000 workers were added to payrolls in April. US economic [...]
Why this central bank isn’t worried about the rise of Bitcoin May 1, 2014 Top officials from the Canadian central bank have said they are not worried about the rise of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Speaking to the Senate banking committee, Bank of Canada (BoC) governor Steven Poloz said "these are early days … and so far digital currencies have not made it to what we call money." [...]
