Barclays bounces back to lead the market rally May 13, 2009 BARCLAYS is sitting pretty at the top of the UK’s rebounding stocks over the last three months, new figures from Motley Fool (Fool.co.uk) showed yesterday. The bank’s share price has soared from 61p on 9 March to 281p as of Monday’s closing price, a gain of 360 per cent, as UK lenders began to claw [...]
Unicredit hit but still bullish on East Europe May 13, 2009 ITALY’S UniCredit, the biggest lender in central and eastern Europe, is more upbeat about the recession-hit region as asset deterioration there slows, the bank said yesterday. Its optimism came in spite of a dramatic drop in first quarter pre-tax profit which fell 58 per cent to €447m on lower fees. And sales were also down [...]
Gloomy Bank cuts outlook May 13, 2009 THE BANK of England yesterday said growth will recover more slowly than previously predicted but raised its forecast for future inflation to about 1.5 per cent in a gloomy assessment of the outlook for the UK economy, suggesting monetary policy may need to remain loose for some time. In its quarterly inflation report the BoE [...]
Allianz profits plummet amid more Dresdner pain May 13, 2009 GERMAN financial services group Allianz announced a 97 per cent net profit decline, as aftershocks from its disastrous ownership of Dresdner Bank continued to erode gains. Chief financial officer at the firm Helmut Perlet said net income was just €29m (£26m) in the quarter, compared with €1.2bn (£1.07bn) in the same quarter a year ago, thanks [...]
L&G sales up but capital fears persist May 13, 2009 INSURER Legal & General (L&G) reported above-consensus first-quarter sales of £382m yesterday and said the worst of the crisis appears to be over, but fears over the firm’s capitalisation levels continued to dominate. L&G revealed a 3 per cent global sales rise, from £372m a year ago, which was massively bigger than analyst expectations of [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHEN DO YOU EXPECT THE UK TO START GROWING AGAIN? May 13, 2009 ANTONY BERKIN NEGATIVE EQUITY PROTECTION “I expect we’ll start to see some growth in the fourth quarter of this year. House prices will be a big indicator of how well we’re recovering, but I think it’ll be a while before they bottom out. That said, we won’t recover from government debt for years.” KENNETH STEVENSON METDIST “It [...]
Fave will Cheka-mate opposition in Solario December 29, 2008 The Marcus Tregoning trained Shabiba looks the filly to beat at Sandown tomorrow in the Iveco Atalanta Stakes live on Channel 4 at 2.05pm. She is stepping back up to a mile after a promising third to Visit over an inadequate seven furlongs at Goodwood last time out. The daughter of Misterah didn’t get going [...]
Mayor calls on business expertise December 8, 2008 London mayor Boris Johnson has recruited the help of 47 top-flight business leaders to offer him guidance and advice, it was announced yesterday. The International Business Advisory Council for London has been set up and will be chaired by Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising group WPP. The council will advise the mayor on [...]
Labour must adapt, admits weary Brown September 10, 2008 Gordon Brown yesterday admitted that the Labour party would have to rethink the way it governs if it is to win at the next general election. In an unusually candid interview, the Prime Minister conceded that the government needed to do more to convince voters that it deserves an historic fourth term. He made the [...]
MoD offloads Qinetiq September 10, 2008 QinetiQ shares took a nosedive yesterday after the Ministry of Defence announced it would sell the 18.9 per cent stake it retained after the defence technology company was floated two years ago. The government said that its 124.9m shares would be sold via an “accelerated bookbuild offering to be launched immediately”. However, it will retain [...]
