Equity deal volumes down by 31pc in 2011 December 20, 2011 THE GLOBAL market in new equity shrank by nearly a third this year in a stark indication of the damage done to capital markets by ongoing political turmoil all over the world. Annual figures from Dealogic show the amount of cash raised by issuing new shares has dropped to $621bn this year, down 31 per [...]
Value is key for the grocers December 20, 2011 LAST week I looked at how the major UK banks performed on YouGov’s BrandIndex in 2011, and this week I’m turning my attention to how the supermarkets fared over the same year. An interesting starting point is to take the Index Score (which is a composite of six key attribute measures). We see that all [...]
SHELL CONFIRMS GULF OF MEXICO SPILL December 20, 2011 SHELL yesterday confirmed a leak from an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, just 26 miles from the site of last year’s spill from BP’s Macondo well. Shell claimed the liquid was in fact drilling fluid and would not have “any significant impact on the environment”. The leak was from Transocean’s Deepwater Nautilus rig. [...]
Gloomy New Year as shops predict slump December 20, 2011 RETAIL sales are higher now than the run-up to Christmas a year ago, the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) distributive trades survey showed yesterday – the first year-on-year rise since May. But the expansion is not expected to last, with sales set to fall again next month and consumer confidence dropping again, claims researcher GfK. [...]
London is still top choice for international workers December 20, 2011 LONDON is the most popular “global city” among international jobseekers, beating New York, Singapore and Paris according to a survey out today. The capital’s world-beating reputation comes despite the downbeat outlook encouraging Britons themselves to seek work overseas. Workers in crisis-hit countries are particularly keen to move to London, with those in Portugal, Ireland and [...]
Unemployment down across US December 20, 2011 American joblessness fell to 8.6 per cent in November, and the decline was very broadly based, figures out yesterday from the US Department of Labor revealed. Unemployment rose in three states last month and declined in 43 – the largest number to record declines in a single month for eight years. North Dakota continues to [...]
American housing market jumps December 20, 2011 US housing starts soared 9.3 per cent in the month to November to hit an 18-month high, according to figures out yesterday from the Commerce Department. New residential building permits rose to an annualised level of 681,000 in the month, up from 644,000 in October. Multifamily starts reached an annualised rate of 190,000, their highest [...]
Increase in UK empty homes December 20, 2011 The number of empty homes in England increased by 1.8 per cent in 2011, according to data published today by Halifax. The total jumped from 650,127 in April 2010 to 662,105 in the same period of this year. Forty-four per cent of those have been empty for more than six months, accounting for 1.6 per [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 20, 2011 Barclays Wealth Wellian Wiranto has been appointed as Asia economist at Barclays Wealth’s Singapore office. As a member of the Barclays Wealth global investment strategy group, Wiranto will also focus on interpreting market economics for private banking clients in the region. Prior to joining Barclays Wealth, Wiranto worked at HSBC Bank in Singapore as its [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 20, 2011 AGGREKO After yesterday’s trading statement and a meeting with management, JP Morgan rates the temporary power provider as “neutral” with a target price of 1850p. The broker says trading seems to be strong, and upgrades its estimates from 2012 by two per cent to account for lower tax. It expects a reasonable margin on work [...]
