BEST OF THE BROKERS May 9, 2010 BARCLAYS UBS maintains a “buy” rating on Barclays and says revenues in the investment bank are set to grow as newer businesses start to deliver. The sharp negative reaction to Barclays’ trading update last month was on a weaker revenue performance than expected but UBS says the lower revenue was counterbalanced by lower costs. It [...]
Interest rates set to remain in a deadlock May 9, 2010 MONETARY policy should remain on hold this month to provide some certainty to the markets and to give the Bank of England time to fully assess the political situation, a majority of City A.M.’s Shadow MPC say ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee decision that is due at midday today. Only Henderson’s Simon Ward thinks [...]
CITY AM | SHADOW MPC May 9, 2010 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “The economy is recovering and requires tighter policy. However, given the political uncertainty, rates should be kept on hold – with the option of an emergency MPC meeting in a few weeks if required.” SIMON WARD | NEW STAR “Raise rates by 25 basis points. The election result risks delaying [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 9, 2010 KPMG The accountancy firm has appointed Alastair McLeish as UK head of tax and pensions, effective from 1 July. McLeish joined KPMG’s Birmingham office in 1994 and was subsequently appointed in 2003 as head of the pensions advisory group, which he has built up since to encompass over 350 staff and 20 partners. Former UK [...]
RAJARATNAM UPS THE STAKES IN INSIDER TRADING PROBE DEFENCE May 9, 2010 TIME was when those facing high-profile lawsuits would crawl into hiding with their respective legal advisers, shunning all publicity and emerging only to don their sharp suits on the morning they went into court. But not any more. Perhaps emboldened by Goldman Sachs’ go-get-‘em attitude to shielding itself against the SEC, Raj Rajaratnam – the [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK May 9, 2010 PLENTY of food for thought for these eight accountants on Friday lunchtime, as they headed to Farringdon’s Vivat Bacchus restaurant for a post-election discussion of the results and possible implications for British politics. Our connoisseurs fed their debate with foie gras, asparagus and ostrich carpaccio for starters, rack of lamb, springbok, beef and sea bass [...]
Score the winner at this World Cup May 9, 2010 WE ARE just under a month away from the start of the World Cup and Fabio Capello has instilled a new-found confidence in England’s players and fans. While he is the right man to sort out England’s mentality issues, the national team has only ever made it to the semi-finals once since their win in [...]
Mid-sized UK firms poised to create profits May 9, 2010 WHO would have thought that the FTSE 250 – often considered a better reflection of the UK economy than the FTSE 100 – would have outperformed the larger index? Even after the swings in the financial markets at the end of last week, the mid-cap 250 index is currently 5 per cent higher than it [...]
NEWS FROM THE TRADING FLOOR May 9, 2010 FXCM ACQUIRES BRITISH ODL GROUP American foreign exchange broker FXCM last week announced that it had agreed terms to acquire ODL Group, an independent broker based in the UK and across Europe. The combined companies will operate as one of the largest non-bank forex brokers globally servicing over 200,000 live trading accounts with total client [...]
THE TIPSTER May 9, 2010 ENGINE-MAKER Rolls Royce has seen its shares rise some 140 per cent since their lows of March of last year and they had climbed in a strong bull channel to highs of 631p last month. But the stock has suffered from the recent sell-off, providing spread betters with an opportunity to jump in to the [...]
