Chinese trade surplus hits 18-month high of $28.7bn August 10, 2010 CHINA’S trade surplus unexpectedly ballooned in July to an 18-month high of $28.7bn (£18.2bn) in July from $20.02bn in June, handing fresh ammunition to critics who say Beijing is still not moving swiftly enough to allow the yuan to rise. Exports showed resilience, rising 38.1 per cent from a year earlier to a record high [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT FALLING HOUSE PRICES? August 10, 2010 EGAN LUDLOW | KENNEDYS “I think the market will return over time even if prices fall in the short-term. The question is whether the South East will be affected. I think people in the regions will be affected with rising levels of unemployment, but the City lives off confidence so it will be interesting.” MATTHEW [...]
Hampshire deliver a right Royal snub to Pietersen August 10, 2010 HAMPSHIRE have delivered one last snub to Kevin Pietersen for the Twenty20 Finals Day. Pietersen, 30, has played just seven first-class matches in six years at Hampshire but has been made available by England to play in Saturday’s Rose Bowl showpiece. But after announcing he is to leave the county at the end of the [...]
SPORT | IN BRIEF August 10, 2010 Simmonds leads British 1-2 SWIMMING: Lizzie Simmonds led Britain to a one-two finish in the 200m backstroke at the European Championships in Budapest yesterday. Gemma Spofforth took silver as Simmonds, the world No1 at 200m this year, sealed gold in a time of two minutes 7.04 seconds. Earlier in the day, Britain’s Liam Tancock battled [...]
Interserve is hit as profits dip by a third August 10, 2010 Maintenance and outsourcing firm Interserve yesterday said first half pretax profit fell 31 per cent compared to last year, though the firm expects growth in overseas markets to help improve earnings in the coming year. The company, which last year closed the majority of its pension scheme, said pre-tax profit for the first half of [...]
Chemring buys Roke to shore up counter-terrorism branch August 10, 2010 BRITISH arms group Chemring has bought engineering company Roke from Siemens for £55m, it announced yesterday. Chemring said the acquisition of the counter-improvised explosive devices (IEDs) specialist will take the group to the forefront of homeland security and offer entry points to other markets such as surveillance. Roke builds counter-IED equipment used by British forces [...]
Investment in property rises… August 10, 2010 CENTRAL London real estate investment volumes rose sharply during the second quarter as strong investor demand was satisfied due to an increase in stock on the market. Investment turnover rose 57 per cent over the quarter to reach £1.9bn, according to figures from CB Richard Ellis published yesterday. German and Middle Eastern funds showed renewed [...]
…though office take-up slows August 10, 2010 LONDON-BASED companies took up just 1.3m square feet of new office space in the last three months, half the activity level seen at the start of the year. Yet the research from King Sturge also offers hope for office landlords, predicting a rise in office-based financial services jobs in the coming months that will boost [...]
Saudis grant RIM reprieve on BlackBerry August 10, 2010 BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) yesterday won a reprieve from a threatened ban in Saudi Arabia as authorities said progress was being made on addressing their concerns. The company’s biggest Gulf market with 700,000 users, Saudi Arabia had threatened to ban the service last Friday before giving RIM until Monday as it worked with [...]
Google raided by South Korea over privacy August 10, 2010 SOUTH Korean police said they raided Google’s Seoul office yesterday on suspicion that the internet giant had illegally collected data on users. Google has been preparing since late last year to launch its Street View service in the country and the data collection was related to the launch, police said. The probe in one of [...]
