A bright future for 10-year-old European ETFs April 14, 2010 IT WAS 10 years ago this week that Merrill Lynch unveiled the first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Europe and listed them on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Britain was not far behind – iShares launched its first FTSE 100 ETF on the London Stock Exchange on 28 April 2000. A decade later, the European ETF industry [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS April 14, 2010 SOUTH AFRICA STORY Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has recently launched a new accelerated tracker that gives exposure to South Africa’s stock index, the FTSE/JSE Top 40 index. This is the second South African product it has launched in recent weeks. It recently launched covered warrants on the same index. Ben Board from RBS says [...]
City insider entertains again with a tale of international skulduggery April 14, 2010 THE TWAIN MAXIM BY CLEM CHAMBERS No Exit, £6.99 by Zoe Strimpel “A MINE is a hole in the ground with a fool at the bottom and a crook at the top,” says a character called Samuel Clemens at the beginning of this thriller. It’s 1900 when Clemens (pen name Mark Twain) uttered this “maxim” [...]
OUT OF OFFICE April 14, 2010 PIRATES OF PENZANCE AT WILTON’S Wilton’s Music Hall may be a stone’s throw from Tower Hill, but the oldest surviving music hall is a magnificently atmospheric throwback to another age. Its current show mixes the traditional – Gilbert & Sullivan – with the distinctly modern, in the form of an all-male production of the Pirates [...]
In business, sorry is the hardest word April 14, 2010 LAST week technology giant AOL revealed that it is planning to close or sell the social networking site Bebo, which it bought for $850m just two years ago. It’s fair to say that was an expensive error. Everybody makes mistakes in business – even if they hopefully don’t end up costing you the best part [...]
CAREERS CLINIC April 14, 2010 I AM worried that after the election there is going to be another round of problems for the economy and that I am going to have to make cuts in my department. We’ve already been through the recession, how do I deal with this? Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer once said that you can always [...]
Bankers must look hard at pay if they want to win back the public’s support April 14, 2010 JUDGING by public and media sentiment over the past couple of years, the fairground arcade staple of whack-a-mole will at some point be replaced by the sport of whack-a-banker. The credit crunch blame-game does not appear to be dissipating. A particular bone of contention between the banks, politicians and the public is the issue of [...]
Top ten summer quenchers April 14, 2010 Black Diamond Sour For your late summer nights, this is a sultry rich cocktail with the aromas of a hot evening. Amaretto comes with blackberries, lime and violet liqueur, served over crushed ice and garnished with an edible flower. £8.50 at Loungelover, www.lestrois-garcons.com Garden of Earthly Delights Basil-infused Tanqueray gin, maraschino, peach purée and lemongrass [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS April 14, 2010 GO AL FRESCO IN LITTLE VENICE Rejoice: the season for summer popups has arrived. And none will be more summery than the 60-cover Summerhouse, on the banks of Little Venice’s canal. In keeping with a Hampton’s beach house theme, the menu will be full of American seafood dishes such as New England clam chowder, popcorn [...]
JP Morgan sees profits rise April 14, 2010 JPMorgan Chase has reported first quarter profits of $3.3bn (£2.1bn). Revenues from its investment bank overshadowed losses on consumer loans. Shares of the second-largest US bank rose 2.4 per cent as it said the pace of loan losses slowed. The main area which fuelled the bank’s figures was its debt trading business, which produced revenues [...]
