Carillion wary of the year ahead March 2, 2011 Building and support services firm Carillion reported full-year profit at the top end of forecasts, although expectations of tough trading conditions helped send its shares down 4.4 per cent to 357.4p yesterday. The firm reported a pre-tax profit of £167.9m for the year, up 24 per cent on 2009, with a forward order book worth [...]
BBA fuels expansion with placing March 2, 2011 BBA Aviation, which handles refuelling and ground handling at airports, is splashing out a total of nearly £45m on two acquisitions, financed via a share issue, that will take it into new aircraft markets and expand its geographic presence. BBA, which posted a 22 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £95.4m yesterday, said that [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 2, 2011 Kinsey Allen International Sebastian Piggott has joined Kinsey Allen International (KAI), the global executive search firm, as a consultant. Piggott joins Kinsey Allen International’s fixed income practice to focus on senior sales and trading hires across credit, rates and foreign exchange. Piggott started his career in 1990 at Yamaichi International, and subsequently worked for Natwest [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 2, 2011 ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS Morgan Stanley rates the retail group “equal-weight” with a target price of £11. The broker has trimmed its earnings estimates by 2.5 to three per cent over the next three years and cut its target price by 50p following the firm’s recent results. Morgan Stanley believes that UK like-for-like sales are now [...]
FTSE slips lower but profits from StanChart help cheer March 2, 2011 RALLYING banks boosted by results from Standard Chartered helped Britain’s top share index pare losses yesterday, but the index still closed lower as geopolitical concerns continued to dog sentiment. The FTSE 100 closed down 20.87 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,914.89, as lingering political concerns in the Arab world continued to dent confidence and [...]
Wall St shrugs off fresh oil price rise March 2, 2011 US stocks eked out gains yesterday despite another rise in oil prices as investors bet the latest data signaled the economy could absorb expected higher energy costs. Wall Street seesawed as oil fluctuated throughout the day. Brent crude LCOc1 hit a 2 1/2-year high above $117 a barrel in the late morning but later slipped. [...]
Hard work, not sisterhood, breaks the glass ceiling March 2, 2011 LATEST figures show that only 12 per cent of FTSE100 directors are women, or 5.5 per cent if you exclude non-executives. There has been much talk about a male conspiracy to keep women from having a seat on the board – and there is some basis to the assertion; people tend to hire in their [...]
ASK THE GURUS ARE DUVET DAYS ACCEPTABLE? March 2, 2011 Steve Leeson Operations Director, Financial Services, Morgan McKinley If you take unapproved “duvet days”, bear in mind that you run the risk of damaging your reputation. Earning the label of “work-shy” or “skiver” can seriously affect how you are viewed by your colleagues and may harm your long term career prospects. There are more effective [...]
Make sure you cash in on competing ISAs March 2, 2011 THIS year’s individual savings account (ISA) season is in full swing, as banks and building societies try to lure canny savers. The market for the tax-free savings accounts has been buzzing since the start of February, with 82 new launches or rate increases, according to Moneyfacts.co.uk. Patrick Connolly, at AWD Chase de Vere, the independent [...]
Don’t blindly follow the herds into the big cap funds March 2, 2011 DESPITE large-cap funds having underperformed against their small to mid-cap alternatives in recent years (see chart), figures would suggest that this year could see large-cap funds turn the tables. “We have certainly seen a lot more interest in equities, away from bonds and gilts,” said Andy Simpson at Schroders Asset Management, “though not as attractive [...]
