CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 21, 2011 Yorkshire Building Society Chris Pilling, head of branch network at HSBC Bank, has been appointed as chief executive of the UK’s second-largest building society. Pilling will join Yorkshire Building Society on 31 December, taking over from current chief executive Iain Cornish. Prior to joining HSBC as chief executive of its telephone and internet banking arm [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 21, 2011 CREDIT AGRICOLE Deutsche Bank rates the bank “hold” with a target price of €11.70 (£10.23), down from €14. The broker expects net income of €350m at its quarterly results on Thursday, a big drop compared with earlier this year due to an €850m charge linked to its Greek business. While Credit Agricole is one of [...]
Negative tone prevails as markets face testing week August 21, 2011 AFTER another volatile week, anyone hoping that a belated summer lull might be on the way, perhaps to lick wounds and assess trading strategies, will be disappointed for now. This morning’s opening call is for another one per cent drop on the UK stock market, tumbling back below the 5,000 level, and with alarm bells [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD August 21, 2011 THE historic swings in the US stock market over the past two weeks have investors struggling to figure out where equities may be headed next. Only one thing seems clear: The volatility is far from over. A lack of progress on some of the economy’s biggest issues — from Europe’s sovereign debt to increasing signs [...]
Looking past the European short-selling smokescreen August 21, 2011 IN a bid to stop the rout of their respective banking sectors, France, Italy, Belgium and Spain last week put in place controls on the short selling of a number of banking stocks. The ban is for 15 days, meaning that it will expire on 26 August. Spain has also gone one step further, explicitly [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD in association with GFT August 21, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● Petrofac posts its interim results today. With oil prices dropping from their recent highs coupled with a market slump, oil companies have taken a bit of a knock of late, with their interim reports reflecting this downturn. Petrofac will be hoping that its results buck this trend. ● Another energy industry player, [...]
THE TIPSTER August 21, 2011 HAVING hit dizzying levels back at the end of 2008, the VIX – or fear index – is back in focus once again. Rampant volatility pushes this index higher and there’s been no shortage of that of late – some may have thought we’d seen the end of it but the big losses at the [...]
CHARLES STANLEY HIT FOR SIX IN HUMBLING CRICKETING DEFEAT August 21, 2011 BATTERED egos at Charles Stanley, which is still recovering from its painful cricketing defeat at the hands of Ignis Asset Management in the final of the Stockbrokers Cup. “Cricket can be a great leveller,” said Charles Stanley’s “gutted” captain Ed Clark, who brought his team to the match as the undefeated champions for the past [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK August 21, 2011 ENTRY to the One For One nightclub on Park Lane is by invitation only, so what goes on tour in the darkened corners of the Mayfair den usually stays on tour. Except, owing to the fondness of its jetset members for spending large amounts of money on top-end champagne, reports of high-rolling activity occasionally filter [...]
How to get the best deal exiting… August 21, 2011 PETER Jones cashed in on his Wireless Logic investment this week, pocketing a whopping £38m. This is the third telecoms business he has sold in the last year, totting up over £100m in the process. He’s after a “war chest” that will buy him a mega-retail brand to turn around. Just how does he do [...]
