EnCore Oil makes North Sea find April 12, 2011 British oil and gas explorer EnCore Oil said yesterday it found a large oil column and hydrocarbon-bearing sands at a well in the Cladhan field in the UK North Sea, six months after it had hinted that the discovery could be commercial. EnCore said it found oil-bearing sandstones at the upper Jurassic layers of the [...]
BG Group is positive on Brazil April 12, 2011 BG Group yesterday announced its tests in Brazilian off-shore oil site Guará Norte were highly productive, with a productivity of some 6,000 barrels of oil per day of light oil. It also said the site, located approximately 305km off the coast of Sao Paulo, has a potential of up to 50,000 barrels a day.
Walker Greenback triples profit April 12, 2011 Luxury interior furnishings group Walker Greenbank’s full-year pre-tax profit nearly tripled, helped by an uptick in demand for luxury goods. It said it was upbeat about its new financial year. The wallpaper and fabrics maker said that brand sales in the first 10 weeks of the new year were up eight per cent to £4.5m.
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 12, 2011 FUJITSU Duncan Tait has been promoted to the role of chief executive for the UK & Ireland at the IT services company, rising from managing director of Fujitsu’s private sector business. Tait succeeds Roger Gilbert, who steps down to executive chairman of the UK and Ireland, and his focus will be developing the company’s expertise [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS April 12, 2011 BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO Jefferies has started covering the tobacco group with a “buy” rating and a target price of £31.87. The broker sees strong cash generating capacity, given the firm has one of the highest exposures to emerging markets in the sector with 66 per cent of sales coming from new regions, plus the possibility [...]
FTSE falls sharply as Japan crisis hits commodity shares April 12, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index fell sharply yesterday, led by commodity stocks which suffered partly from concerns over the nuclear crisis in Japan and the impact of the earthquake on its economy and also global growth. This dented mining stocks and technology firms such as ARM Holdings. Miners dropped sharply, weighed down too by Alcoa’s fall [...]
US stocks drop on oil price worries April 12, 2011 US stocks dropped yesterday on worries falling oil prices could set off a reversal in the high-flying energy sector, while Alcoa’s leaner-than-expected revenue disappointed. Energy stocks led the S&P 500’s losses, with the S&P Energy Index down 3 per cent. Strategists were already worried the rally in energy stocks may have gone too far ahead [...]
UK rate rise delay now expected by markets April 12, 2011 YESTERDAY’S drop in the consumer price index (CPI) inflation figure for March, from 4.4 to 4 per cent, surprised the markets. This sent sterling tumbling as expectations of a May rate rise evaporated. Weak retail figures compounded the gloomy outlook for the pound. Many traders seem to have been tipped off prior to the announcement, [...]
Quantitative easing: the hot money problem April 12, 2011 DESPITE murmurings to the contrary by various members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), it seems that the US Federal Reserve’s $600bn (£368bn) scheme to purchase Treasury bonds will run its full course, up to June as initially planned. But an intervention the size of QE2 cannot just come to a sudden halt and [...]
MECHANICAL TRADES KEEP EMOTION OUT April 12, 2011 CONSULTING ANALYST, INTERTRADER STEVE Ward once told me that there is no point in having a mechanical trading system if you are not going to follow it. He certainly has a valid point. I fondly remember the trading exercise that I put myself through in order to build trading discipline: pick a strategy and execute [...]