House prices rise by 3 per cent in 2012 despite flat December January 10, 2013 HOUSE PRICES were flat in December, but rose overall in 2012, according to data published today. Despite the lack of change between November and December, the average house price was 3.2 per cent higher last month than a year before, according to the LSL house price index. The rise adds £7,000 to the average property’s [...]
Pensioners’ fuel bills more than double as energy price climbs January 10, 2013 OVER 65s were last year faced with energy bills more than double those they paid in 2005, according to data out this morning. The average weekly fuel bill for families of people aged 65 and older was £26.08 in 2012, Saga said, up from £12.87 in 2005 – an increase of 102.6 per cent. This [...]
UK tourism bounces back after hit to numbers from Olympics January 10, 2013 THE OLYMPICS failed to increase tourism into Britain, official figures revealed yesterday, as the surge in visitors coming to see the Games was outweighed by other potential travellers staying away. But those who came to see the sporting spectacle spent more than twice as much as the average tourist, and the country saw a rebound [...]
Tough lending conditions push firms into leasing IT equipment January 10, 2013 THE DIFFICULTY of obtaining credit is driving firms to lease equipment they need, according to figures seen by City A.M. The use of asset finance to procure IT hardware and software soared 26 per cent during the year to September 2012, data from Syscap revealed, hitting £1.34bn, up from £1.07bn in the same period a [...]
Jobless claims in US edge up at start of year January 10, 2013 US NEW jobless claims edged higher in the first week of January, according to data out yesterday, but stayed below the figure for a year earlier. Seasonally adjusted new unemployment insurance claims climbed by 4,000 to hit 371,000 in the week ending 5 January, the Department of Labor revealed. However, overall the labour market looks [...]
City Moves for 11 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 10, 2013 Rathbones The investment management firm has appointed Mike Townsend as investment director. He joins from Coutts, where he was a senior private banker. Townsend has 34 years’ experience in wealth management, and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. City Financial The fund management firm has appointed Mark Harris as manager [...]
Best of the Brokers January 10, 2013 G4S RBC has lifted the security company from “Outperform” to “Top Pick” with a price target of 320p, believing it will catch up with its peers after having underperformed the services sector by 27 per cent last year, as well as the FTSE 100 by 11 per cent. In 2013, G4S is likely to see [...]
Profit-taking cannot halt FTSE as it hits highest close since May 2008 January 10, 2013 BRITAIN’S top share index closed above the 6,100 resistance level for the first time since 22 May 2008, yesterday, recovering from a late wobble after a choppy trading session. The FTSE 100 index was up 2.86 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 6,101,51, having seen some late profit-taking erased in the closing auction, but the [...]
Bullish Chinese data sends US shares upward January 10, 2013 US stocks rose yesterday and the S&P 500 ended at a fresh five-year high as stronger-than- expected exports from China spurred optimism about global growth prospects. Buying accelerated late in the day after the S&P 500 broke through technical resistance at 1,466.47, which was the market’s closing level last Friday and the highest level since [...]
Britain is bound to a Single Market at the expense of freedom to trade January 10, 2013 HOW often do we hear politicians claiming that “half our exports” go to the EU? I’m not sure this statistic was ever properly true. The data has been distorted in two ways. First, there is what economists call the “Rotterdam effect”: many British exports destined for non-EU markets are routed through Antwerp and Rotterdam, thus [...]
