BAA passenger numbers fall in February March 11, 2011 BAA passenger traffic fell at UK airports overall in February – but Heathrow saw a rise. The airport operator flew 7.11m passengers from its UK airports last month, compared with 6.97m in the same month last year. Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, flew 4.62m passengers, up by 0.5 per cent, the group said. Chief executive Colin [...]
Factory gate inflation rises on oil price March 11, 2011 Factory gate inflation rose to its highest annual rate in more than two years in February, led by surging oil and food prices, official data showed. The Office for National Statistics said producer output prices rose 0.5 percent on the month for an annual rise of 5.3 percent – up from an annual five per [...]
FirstGroup on track for full year earnings March 11, 2011 Transport operator FirstGroup said it was on course to achieve overall earnings and cash targets for the year, as strength at its UK rail division offset continued margin weakness at its student business. “We are encouraged by improving trends in UK rail and Greyhound and a continued steady performance in our UK bus and transit [...]
Asian stocks dive after Japan tsunami March 11, 2011 Asia stock markets and the yen have dropped after a tsunami and earthquake hit Japan. It hit just before the 06.45 GMT close of trading in Tokyo. The Nikkei index was 1.7 per cent lower at the close of the day. Nikkei June futures fell 2.8 per cent in in after-hours trading as the scale [...]
JD Wetherspoon sees profit drop by 11pc March 11, 2011 JD Wetherspoon reported an 11 per cent decline in first half pre-tax profit, blaming higher interest charges following the renewal of its bank facilities in March last year. The company, which has 787 pubs across Britain made a pretax profit of £32.2m in the half year to 23 January, down from £36.2m the year before. [...]
Interest rate held at record low 0.5pc March 10, 2011 The Bank of England has frozen the interest rate at 0.5 per cent again. The number of Bank of England policymakers backing an interest rate hike increased last month as inflation with Spencer Dale, chief economist at the Bank, joined fellow MPC members Andrew Sentance and Martin Weale in voting to lift rates. With inflation [...]
UK in manufacturing bounce back March 10, 2011 Manufacturing output rebounded more than expected in January to rise at its fastest monthly pace in 10 months, after firms made up for a weather-related drop in output in December, official data showed on Thursday. The Office for National Statistics said manufacturing output rose one per cent in January, more than reversing a 0.1 per [...]
China trade deficit hits 7-year high March 10, 2011 China swung to a surprise trade deficit in February of $7.3bn (£4.5bn), its largest in seven years, as the Lunar New Year holiday dealt an unexpectedly sharp blow to exports. It was China’s first trade deficit since March last year and its biggest since February 2004. Economists, who had forecast a small surplus of $4.95bn, [...]
Rio Tinto raises bid for Riversdale March 10, 2011 Rio Tinto raised its offer for Africa-focused coal miner Riversdale Mining slightly to $3.9bn in a final bid to woo key shareholders, a move that Riversdale said was helping to sway institutions. Riversdale chief executive Steve Mallyon said the higher bid was helping to win over institutional shareholders, but he did not know how Riversdale’s [...]
Morrisons profit up as it unveils share buyback March 10, 2011 Supermarket group Morrisons has reported a rise in annual profit and issued details o f a share buyback plan. The company announced a pre-tax profit of £874m for the 12 months to the end of January, up from the £858m it made in the same period a year ago. Like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT, [...]
