HMV profit up 18 per cent June 30, 2010 HMV met forecasts with an 18 per cent rise in year profit and said its plan to transform the business into a broad-based entertainment brand is making progress. The music, games and DVD group, which runs over 400 stores under its own name as well as 314 Waterstone’s bookstores, made an underlying pretax profit of [...]
House prices rise 0.1 per cent in June June 30, 2010 HOUSE prices rose by 0.1 per cent in June, according to the Nationwide building society. The average property price in the UK is now more than £170,000. Prices have risen by three per cent since the start of the year, the lender’s house price index showed. But the rate of annual house price inflation fell [...]
Markets slump on fears of double-dip June 29, 2010 MARKETS on both sides of the Atlantic plummeted yesterday as doubts over the strength of the global recovery and the possibility of a Europe-wide cash crisis triggered fears of a re-run of the 2008 recession when investors sold all but the safest assets. The FTSE 100 crashed 3.1 per cent, closing at 4914.22 – its [...]
More banks face EU stress tests June 29, 2010 A SECOND round of banking stress tests will examine more than 120 institutions in Europe, and could also include checks on each bank’s exposure to debt from at-risk countries. Analysts have warned that the EU risks further unsettling investors by treating bonds from Greece and other countries as liable to failure, even in tests. The [...]
Spain fights ECB loan plan June 29, 2010 SPANISH banks are bracing themselves today as the European Central Bank prepares to call back €442bn (£358bn) of one-year loans. Senior bankers in the country have described the central bank’s plans to end long-term loans as “absurd.” While the ECB will today offer unlimited loans for three months to lessen the blow to banks across [...]
World trade still driving the recovery June 29, 2010 INVESTORS are right to be worried about the Eurozone. It is the most dangerous part of the world economy, a flawed and failing construct which poses a great threat to the financial system and to the recovery. A Chinese collapse looks much less likely, however, though it is clear that anything that were to derail [...]
Greek bank bid rumoured June 29, 2010 GREECE’S National Bank was said to be in talks with Qatar over selling a small stake to the Gulf state yesterday, though a source close to the issue later denied the reports. “National Bank never had talks about selling a five to seven per cent stake in a non-pre-emptive rights basis,” the source in Greece [...]
EU rules to cap bonus pay-outs from next year June 29, 2010 BANKERS in Europe will not be allowed to take home more than a third of their bonuses in cash from the start of next year. The plans for new rules, which go further than American rules agreed last week, would be the first cap on how bankers are paid. A new watchdog for European banks [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 29, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES M&A ACTIVITY LACKLUSTRE DESPITE STRENGTH IN EMERGING MARKETS Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and turbulent financing markets rattled the confidence of corporate dealmakers across the globe in the first half of the year to damp already lacklustre mergers and acquisition activity. The volume of deals worldwide rose 2.9 per cent to $828.9bn during the [...]
Cazenove: BP could get bid from Exxon June 29, 2010 BP’S FUTURE came under question yesterday after JP Morgan Cazenove suggested the embattled oil major should be taken over by rival Exxon Mobil. JP Morgan analyst Fred Lucas said yesterday that US based Exxon Mobil should move in to make an £88bn bid. Exxon is the most financially strong oil company, he said, adding that [...]
