Xstrata in $500m deal to expand coking coal March 8, 2012 MINER Xstrata, which has agreed to a merger with trader Glencore, expanded its coking coal operations in Canada’s British Columbia yesterday with the $500m (£316.6m) purchase of assets from oil explorer Talisman Energy. Xstrata has been building its presence in the Peace River coalfield, in northern British Columbia, since acquiring First Coal last August. The [...]
Premier Oil abandons its North Sea oil well March 8, 2012 PREMIER Oil’s Bluebell exploration well in the North Sea will be plugged and abandoned after the project was hit by technical difficulties, the UK explorer said yesterday. The next exploration wells to be drilled in the region are the Stingray and Carnaby wells. Both wells are planned for the commencement of drilling in early April [...]
London 2012 IMAGE OF THE WEEK March 8, 2012 OLYMPIC SITE | ORBIT The ArcelorMittal Orbit, designed by Anish Kapoor and now the UK’s largest piece of public art, continues to take shape next to the Olympic Stadium. This week’s image was sent in by Andy Wilkes, a contractor on the site and a BT Olympic storyteller. Photo: Andy Wilkes Between now and the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 8, 2012 AFC Energy The developer of low-cost alkaline fuel cell technology has announced the appointment of Sir John Sunderland as non-executive director of the company. Sunderland has spent 40 years in leadership roles, best known as the former chief executive and later as chairman of Cadbury Schweppes. Currently Sunderland is a non-executive director of Barclays Bank, [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 8, 2012 ARM HOLDINGS Morgan Stanley has upgraded the Cambridge-based chipmaker from equal-weight to “over-weight” with a target price of 650p. The broker says fears of Intel taking market share and uncertainties around Windows8 mean the company’s shares have been underperforming, and that the risks to earnings remain firmly on the upside. Morgan Stanley also says that [...]
FTSE books biggest rise for a month as optimism increases March 8, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index recorded its biggest daily rise in over a month yesterday, boosted by optimism about the US economic outlook as well as the outcome of Greece’s debt negotiations, although charts indicated that momentum could falter. Cyclical stocks, which tend to perform in tandem with economic growth, rose as US jobless claims data [...]
Greece helps US regain week’s loss March 8, 2012 US stocks rose yesterday, recovering most of the week’s losses, after Greece moved closer to a bond swap with private creditors to avoid a messy default. Earlier in the week, the S&P 500 posted its first big loss for the year on fears of a disorderly default in Greece. Now it is down just 0.3 [...]
Disaster stalks triumph for Greece as debt deal leaves Eurozone taxpayers at risk March 8, 2012 THE GREEK private sector involvement (PSI) plan, the process under which banks and other bondholders will take losses, last night claimed sufficient take-up for collective action clauses (CAC) to be triggered, which would force all holders of Greek law bonds into the restructuring plan. If CACs are triggered this morning, where does this leave Greece? [...]
A Parliamentary blueprint to end banking hazards March 8, 2012 STEVE Baker MP has proposed a private member’s bill, the Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill, calling for radical reforms to the banking system and an end to state involvement in banking. Baker is co-founder of the Cobden Centre, a free-market institute advocating the restoration of sound banking and honest money, and is the Conservative MP for [...]
Taking fewer decisions is the smartest choice March 8, 2012 IF YOU’RE going on a diet, you’d better start with a sugary drink. That’s the counterintuitive message of Willpower, a fascinating new book by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney exploring the biochemistry of self-control. Baumeister and Tierney argue, based on a considerable body of experimental research, that the ability to resist temptation takes considerable energy [...]
