Nissan to build electric fleet in UK March 18, 2010 NISSAN will begin building the Leaf electric compact car at its Sunderland plant from early 2013, securing hundreds of jobs. The site will start with annual production capacity 50,000 of the zero-emission vehicles. The investment is backed by a £20.7m government grant and up to £220m from the European Investment Bank. Nissan’s move is part [...]
Public borrowing lower than forecasts March 18, 2010 BRITAIN’S public sector borrowing rose to its highest for a February on record but by less than economists had forecast, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that net borrowing was £12.361bn – below forecasts of £14.75bn. Meanwhile tax receipts rose by 3.6 per cent – the largest jump since April [...]
Co-op profits surge after Somerfield deal March 18, 2010 THE Co-operative group is to pay a bumper dividend after its profits jumped 85 per cent in 2009. Buying Somerfield helped the Co-op record a £402m profit while revenues surged by almost a third. Dividends totalling £55m will be dished out to its members as a result of the profits hike. The group merged its [...]
Savills profits dive but London market rebounds March 18, 2010 PROPERTY agent Savills has seen profit plummet by almost a quarter and predicted more turbulence in the market this year. Pre-tax underlying profit in 2009 was £25.2m compared with £33.2m a year earlier, despite a slight improvement in the fourth quarter fuelled by the London residential property market. Chief executive Jeremy Helsby said: “Notwithstanding the [...]
Choose a professional to look after your money March 17, 2010 IF you want one of the world’s most successful fund managers to look after your money, it is time to look towards Asia. Fidelity’s Anthony Bolton has recently launched a new fund, the China Special Situations Fund, and it’s open to ISAs. While interest rates on cash ISAs remain low, equity investments can be a [...]
Get to grips with the details of ISAs March 17, 2010 A RECENT survey by Halifax said that 37 per cent of households now have an ISA. But how many of us actually use our full annual allowance or, more to the point, even know what our yearly tax-free entitlement is? And for experienced investors who already put their money to work elsewhere, the paltry returns [...]
Add corporate bonds to your ISA for income March 17, 2010 WHEN the Bank of England introduced its £200bn emergency quantitative easing (QE) programme last year, the expectation in the markets was that benchmark 10-year gilt yields would fall as the Bank soaked up the billions of pounds worth of debt that the government was issuing. In fact, yields are today much where they were a [...]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE WITHIN THE UK’S SLUGGISH RECOVERY March 17, 2010 IT seems that every week the UK economy clocks up more evidence of its disappointing recovery from the recession. The spectre of a hung parliament and a mountainous fiscal deficit is only adding to the image of the UK as the sick man of Europe. And the UK does indeed look sick. It can’t even [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS March 17, 2010 BASIC RESOURCES ETF OUTPERFORM Basic resource-related ETFs issued by ETF Securities saw fantastic performance last week as investors regained their appetite for risk. The ETFX Dow Jones STOXX 600 Basic Resources Fund rose by over 9 per cent last week and the ETF is up 130.9 per cent on this time last year. The ETFX [...]
Placing of shares makes G4S look less secure as markets enjoy a strong day March 17, 2010 SHARES in security services group G4S were the biggest fallers in the leading index for the second day running, even as the market closed near a 21 month high on renewed economic optimism and a spate of takeover news. Hot on the heels of a disappointing 2010 forecast, G4S was hit by news of the [...]
