House prices continue to strengthen in December January 7, 2010 HOUSE prices in the UK recorded their sixth consecutive monthly rise in December, data from the Halifax showed yesterday, though the mortgage lender expects prices to plateau over the rest of 2010. Prices rallied one per cent between November and December, bringing the cost of the average UK home to £169,042. December also saw house [...]
Jobless claims in US rise less than expected January 7, 2010 THE DOLLAR enjoyed a slight boost yesterday after the number of Americans making first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose less than expected. The US government said initial jobless claims increased by just 1,000 to 434,000 in the week ending 2 January, supporting hopes that the struggling job market is bottoming out. The seasonally adjusted figure [...]
Cautious gain at Persimmon January 7, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon yesterday remained cautious over the health of the housing market despite a stronger performance in the second half of 2009. The FTSE 250 group said it completed the sale of 8,796 new homes during 2009, which generated a turnover of around £1.4bn. Almost 5000 of these properties were sold in the second half [...]
FULL-YEAR TRADING UPDATE INTERVIEWS January 7, 2010 IMRAN AKRAM | COLLINS STEWART “Persimmon is the first housebuilder to report a solid trading update. Volumes were 12 per cent lower year-on-year but picked up in the second half of last year. Net debt was better than expected. Bovis and TaylorWimpey are our top picks but we continue to see upside to our target [...]
DOOMSAYING ECONOMIST ENJOYS HIS NEWFOUND CELEBRITY STATUS January 7, 2010 MY, HOW the world has changed. While most of us have been going around assuming that brainy economists are dismissed by the popular, hedonistic masses as nothing more than dreary nerds, it appears the best of them have been snagging invites to the most glamorous parties in town. Actually, town doesn’t begin to cover it [...]
Market rally is a positive for Rathbone January 7, 2010 RATHBONE Brothers yesterday reported a 25 per cent increase in funds under management for 2009 as buoyant equity markets repaired the damage done in the depths of the recession. Total assets under management climbed to £13.1bn in December, up from £10.5bn a year earlier in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse. The 268-year-old firm [...]
Hays sees fees fall by a third January 7, 2010 HAYS, the UK’s largest recruitment firm, yesterday reported a 30 per cent fall in net fees in its second fiscal quarter last year. But it was optimistic that stability is returning to all its major jobs markets, including banking, and saw modest quarter-on-quarter growth in the UK private sector. Based on the figures Charles Stanley [...]
Arbuthnot set to beat full year profit expectations January 7, 2010 BANKING group Arbuthnot delivered welcome good news to investors yesterday as it said annual pre-tax profit is expected to come in ahead of market expectations. After falling into the red in 2008, Arbuthnot said its investment banking arm would post a profit for the second half of 2009 despite the division continuing to suffer over [...]
Iceland says it has UK assurance on EU bid plan January 7, 2010 ICELAND’S foreign minister yesterday said he had been assured by British foreign secretary David Miliband that a presidential rejection of the so-called Icesave bill would not torpedo Iceland’s EU bid. The president’s refusal to sign a bill to repay Britain and the Netherlands more than $5bn (£3.1bn) their savers lost when Icelandic banks collapsed, forces [...]
UniCredit prices €4bn rights issue January 7, 2010 ITALY’S biggest bank UniCredit yesterday priced its €4bn (£3.6bn) rights issue at €1.589 a share, a 29 per cent discount, in a move to shore up lagging capital ratios. UniCredit, the Italian bank most pummelled by the credit crunch, is carrying out its second capital increase in a year, the latest in a raft of [...]
