Raspberry Pi computer hits 1m sales to boost Premier Farnell January 13, 2013 BRITISH electronics firm Premier Farnell has been boosted by strong sales of the Raspberry Pi mini computer, with the device selling around 1m units in less than 12 months on sale. The FTSE 250 firm, which sells around half of the Raspberry Pis distributed worldwide, has previously attributed recently improved fortunes to momentum surrounding the [...]
UK entrepreneurs open world’s first Twitter trading platform January 13, 2013 TWITTER can be an accurate predictor of the stock market, according to a British company that is launching the world’s first social media-influenced trading platform. Derwent Capital Markets (DCM) is opening the spreadbetting platform today, after winning approval from the Financial Services Authority last year. The platform includes a feed detailing social media “sentiment”, which [...]
Construction to plunge further in gloomy 2013 January 13, 2013 OUTPUT in the construction industry will continue to collapse in 2013, according to forecasts out this morning. Construction output will drop by 2.2 per cent this year, the Construction Products Association (CPA) said today, adding to the nine per cent plunge the industry has suffered during 2012. CPA economics director Noble Francis blamed government cutbacks [...]
Brough to get top CEBR role January 13, 2013 FORMER journalist Graham Brough will tomorrow take over the reins at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), succeeding current boss Douglas McWilliams. Brough, 52, has been managing director at the economics consultancy since 2010, after a long journalistic career, writing for the Yorkshire Post, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mirror. [...]
First-time buyers need to save eight years to build up deposit January 13, 2013 THOSE looking to get their foot on the housing ladder are taking eight years to save up the necessary deposit, according to research out this morning. The average deposit on a first home was £31,059 during 2012, Barclays said today, meaning potential buyers had to save eight times as long as in 1995, when a [...]
Building firms move to invoices as traditional finance dries up January 13, 2013 HARD-PRESSED construction firms are turning to invoice financing due to an inability to get traditional credit from banks, according to research out today. The number of building companies borrowing against unpaid invoices jumped 17 per cent in 2012, accountant Wilkins Kennedy said this morning, from 1,629 firms in 2011 to 1,911 this year. The latest [...]
City Moves for 14 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 13, 2013 Legal & General Alex Gipson has been appointed as a loans originator and underwriter in Legal & General’s commercial lending team. He joins from RBS, where he worked for 27 years. Gipson was most recently director of housing finance within RBS’s structured finance team. He is a social housing expert, and has worked on numerous [...]
Best of the Brokers January 13, 2013 AGA RANGEMASTER GROUP Numis has the iconic cooker maker “under review” following last week’s trading update. According to the broker, the firm will continue to generate earnings and revenue growth this year. However, Numis has lowered it outer profit before tax forecast for 2013 from £8m to £7.5m. Profit before tax for 2012 is set [...]
Wall Street gets back to business as first full week of earnings starts January 13, 2013 AFTER over a month of watching Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street can get back to what it knows best: Wall Street. The first full week of earnings season is dominated by the financial sector – big investment banks and commercial banks – just as retail investors, free from the fiscal cliff worries, have [...]
UK consumer price index is forecast higher January 13, 2013 UTILITY prices are expected to have lifted the UK’s consumer price index (CPI), the household spending index due out tomorrow along with a swathe of housing and retail data. “We expect CPI inflation to have edged up to 2.8 per cent year on year in December from 2.7 per cent, and retail price index (RPI) [...]
