IG Group buoyed by volatile forex and equity markets June 9, 2010 BRITAIN’S largest spread-betting company, IG Group, said it will report an underlying profit for 2010 up by a quarter, helped by increased volatility in forex and equity markets. The company, which takes spread bets on financial markets – allowing customers to benefit from falling as well as rising prices – said it had benefited from [...]
Morgan Stanley man defects to Barclays Asia June 9, 2010 A TOP Morgan Stanley banker has defected from the firm’s Asia-Pacific M&A unit to take up a senior job at rival Barclays. Edward King is expected to join Barclays’ Asia-Pacific arm this summer after stunning bosses at Morgan Stanley with his resignation. Samuel Kim and Peter Ding, both senior bankers within the same division, will [...]
Santander June 9, 2010 RECESSION? What recession? Santander might be the biggest lender in Spain, which has suffered one of the steepest housing downturns in the world – but it is showing no signs of slowing its frenetic acquisition spree. Already in pole position to snap up the RBS branches that are on the block, it has now bought [...]
Equities should avoid more declines June 9, 2010 JANE FOLEY RESEARCH DIRECTOR, FOREX.COM WHAT started as an acknowledgement from Greece that it had been living way beyond its means has since turned into a universal re-appraisal of the risks of sovereign default in Europe. After Greece, the bond markets of Spain and Portugal were next to be re-examined. More recently French and Dutch [...]
HSBC STAFF MOVE INTO RITZY NEW CHINA DIGS June 9, 2010 MORE Far Eastern joy for HSBC chief Michael Geoghegan, who relocated to Hong Kong earlier this year as part of a drive by the bank to up its focus on Asia. Geoghegan yesterday cut the ribbon on the bank’s swanky new China HQ, located in a shiny tower at the heart of the Shanghai finance [...]
IN FOCUS | UK INFLATION June 9, 2010 UK inflation data may be far higher than the Bank of England target, but there is little risk of a hike in interest rates this year. Governor King has made it clear that he welcomes fiscal tightening rather than higher interest rates. As this takes a hold, King’s conviction that excess capacity will bear down [...]
Shadow MPC votes to keep policy on hold June 9, 2010 UNCERTAINTY ahead of the emergency Budget and ongoing stagnation in the Eurozone, the UK’s largest trading partner, justifies monetary policy staying on hold this month, according to a majority of City A.M.’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Coming ahead of the Bank of England decision, scheduled for midday today, seven out of the nine committee [...]
FCPT agrees to a merger with UKCPT June 9, 2010 TWO of Britain’s property trusts have announced a proposal to merge creating the sixth largest trust of its kind in the UK in a union valued at £1.6bn. Board members of F&C Commercial Property Trust (FCPT) and UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCPT) have agreed on merger terms that are expected to entice new investors. The [...]
Britain’s trade deficit widens but firms are benefiting from the weak pound June 9, 2010 DISRUPTION from the volcanic ash cloud and weakness in the Eurozone widened Britain’s gaping trade deficit in April, official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicated yesterday. The trade deficit in goods and services widened to £3.3bn from £3.2bn in March, as a result of a fall in the services surplus to £4bn [...]
Finland back in recession despite rise in exports June 9, 2010 FINLAND has succumbed to a double-dip recession after it suffered a further two quarters of economic contraction in the six months to March, official statistics confirmed yesterday. The Finnish economy had contracted between October 2008 and July 2009 before growing in the third quarter of last year. However, the Scandinavian economy shrank by 0.2 per [...]
