Westpac warns of gloomier outlook August 23, 2010 AUSTRALIA’S Westpac Banking Corp said its third-quarter cash profit jumped 27.3 per cent, but joined rivals in sounding a cautious tone about prospects amid rising costs, global uncertainty and lukewarm lending growth. Australia’s second biggest home loan lender said third-quarter cash profit rose to A$1.4bn (£900m), just short of analyst expectations of A$1.5bn, but putting [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 23, 2010 Future Group The media business has appointed former ITN chief executive Mark Wood as chief executive of its UK business. Wood, who stood down from ITN last year, has been a non-executive director at Future since April 2009. He will leave the board on taking up his new post at the end of the month. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 23, 2010 SWISS RE Standard & Poor’s Equity Research (S&P) maintains a “sell” rating on Swiss Re, based on its concerns over whether the group’s property and casualty book has been eroded by an aggressive pricing stance. S&P has readjusted forecasts due to an increased allowance for the costs of Swiss Re’s hybrid debt. TULLOW OIL Citigroup [...]
Popular Euro brands are a gateway to the emerging world August 23, 2010 THE consumer staples sector is usually considered fairly robust. The types of goods it produces – alcohol, food and household products –?tend to be immune to fluctuations in earnings and during periods of economic uncertainty should continue to perform relatively well. But that was not the case during the second quarter. While 71 per cent [...]
EQUITIES NOT YET PRICING IN DEFLATION August 23, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT WHILE July was a good month for most stock indices, August has been pretty grim so far. An early rally faded as the S&P encountered significant resistance around 1,130. Equities have struggled to make headway ever since and low trading volumes have exacerbated intra-day market moves. Yet most indices are range-bound [...]
TRADING NEWS August 23, 2010 FXCM ENHANCES NO DEALING DESK EXECUTION This summer, FXCM has enhanced its no dealing desk execution service by adding a price improvement service. If a better price becomes available before a limit order is executed, then clients will automatically receive the best available price. Execution-only brokers are increasingly offering no dealing desk technology, which gives [...]
THE TIPSTER August 23, 2010 POLITICAL turmoil and the prospect of a hung parliament pushed the Australian dollar to its lowest level in more than a month against the greenback yesterday. Independent MPs have now become the kingmakers and the uncertainty as to whether they will lean more towards the Conservatives or Labour has weakened the Aussie dollar. Will the [...]
M&A activity saves FTSE from fourth day of losses but volumes remain thin August 23, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index ended a three-session losing run yesterday, helped by a spate of corporate takeover activity, though trading was thin. HSBC said it was in talks to buy up to 70 per cent in South Africa’s fourth-largest bank, Nedbank, in which insurer Old Mutual has a controlling stake. HSBC added 0.8 per cent [...]
US investors rush for safe havens as tech shares fall August 23, 2010 US stocks slipped in one of the lightest volume sessions of the year as investors took refuge in defensive shares after the latest corporate M&A failed to soothe concerns the recovery is stalling. Technology shares weighed on the broad market and sent the Nasdaq composite lower as a possible bidding war over data storage company [...]
Stress-busting for City professionals August 23, 2010 IT seems pretty impossible to avoid stress at some point in the working week, but is stress a word we use too easily? Neil Shah, world-renowned well-being expert and director of the Stress Management Society, offers a straightforward definition when he says we cope with life like a bridge: when the structure has more and [...]
