BATS Chi-X applies to be stock exchange November 6, 2012 LONDON could gain a new stock exchange after BATS Chi-X Europe applied to become a fully-fledged stock exchange, a source close to the firm said yesterday. The Financial Services Authority could take between six months and a year to process the company’s application to become a Registered Investment Exchange. Once completed it would allow the [...]
Output in the Eurozone drops even further November 6, 2012 THE EUROZONE came in for even more pain in October, according to a prominent business survey out yesterday. But it was Germany that dragged the bloc down this month – outweighing slight improvements in Italian, French and Spanish indices. The composite Eurozone purchasing managers’ index (PMI) sagged to 45.7 in October, Markit said yesterday, from [...]
Hollande slashes payroll taxes to give competitiveness boost November 6, 2012 FRENCH President Francois Hollande yesterday announced a raft of tax cuts as part of a battle plan attempting to improve French competitiveness, but analysts said the moves didn’t go far enough to reform labour markets. The effective U-turn comes after a report from former EADS boss Louis Gallois, and a separate report from the International [...]
Rajoy delays bailout request until interest impact is clearer November 6, 2012 SPAIN will not ask for a bailout until it knows how much it would bring down the government’s borrowing costs, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said yesterday. He told a Madrid radio station that the conditions of the bailout will be important, but so will the impact on bond yields. Currently the government’s 10-year borrowing costs [...]
Greek strike ahead of key budget vote November 6, 2012 HUNDREDS of thousands of Greeks went on strike yesterday in protest at new spending cuts due to go to parliament today. The package will cut 25 per cent from pensions, and must be passed if the government is to get more bailout cash to avoid going bust.
IHG seeks new bidders for its New York hotel November 6, 2012 INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels group said it is seeking new bids for its $300m (£187m) Barclay Hotel in Manhattan after exclusive talks with a prospective buyer, believed to be Qatari hotel owner Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad, came to a halt. “We are still talking to the original interested party but we have decided not to do [...]
Knight Frank says house prices may not return to peak till 2019 November 6, 2012 THE DOWNWARD correction to house prices gathered pace in October, according to data out yesterday, while one estate agent today predicted prices would not reach their pre-recession peak until 2019. The UK’s average house price slid 0.7 per cent into October, according to the Halifax house price index, meaning prices are some 1.7 per cent [...]
BRC sees retail sales dip ahead of Christmas as food price inflation rises November 6, 2012 SHOP price inflation climbed in October, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed yesterday, as food prices boomed. Shop prices rose 1.5 per cent in the year to October, the data showed, up from the one per cent growth in the year to September. This increase was driven by a four per cent climb in food [...]
Car sales rocket up in booming October market November 6, 2012 NEW CAR registrations defied European gloom to soar upwards in October, data showed yesterday, adding to the picture of strength in the 2012 UK market. Consumers registered some 151,252 cars in October, an automobile industry body said, up 12.1 per cent on that month in 2011. This latest rise means total sales so far in [...]
Plan to let state pension funds pump more into infrastructure November 6, 2012 TENS OF BILLIONS of pounds in workers’ savings could be invested in infrastructure projects under new proposals announced yesterday by communities minister Eric Pickles. Businesses and the pensions industry welcomed the move, arguing that freeing up the funds’ investment opportunities should boost the economy in the long run. Current rules limit the amount the local [...]
