Nationwide grows despite tough market May 25, 2011 NATIONWIDE Building Society gained market share and grew underlying profits by almost a third in the past year despite ongoing housing market stagnation, it said yesterday. Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, turned a £276m underlying profit in the year to April, up from £212m in April 2010, against a backdrop of low growth in [...]
Vedanta aims to resurrect Konkola float May 22, 2011 INDIAN-FOCUSED miner Vedanta is looking to revive its float plans for copper miner Konkola in the coming months, after shelving the IPO in November due to market volatility. Vedanta, which holds a 79.4 per cent stake in Konkola, aims to time the float to cash in on the commodities boom while steering clear of lingering [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 19, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MOVE TO QUASH HERMÈS’ POISON PILL Minority shareholders in Hermès have sought to quash the luxury goods group’s poison pill defences devised by its controlling family, potentially bolstering LVMH’s protracted takeover push for its smaller rival. CHINESE SET A NEW STANDARD IN BUYING GOLD China overtook India to become the largest market for [...]
Kylie’s favourite luxe eco-mobile May 17, 2011 The Lexus CT200h will probably be familiar to you whether you’re a Kylie fan or not. It’s the hybrid car she’s been driving since February – on TV at least – and it’s the smallest car that Lexus has made. Lexus is the Japanese answer to BMW or Audi and it has stolen a march [...]
House prices slide despite more activity May 9, 2011 HOUSE prices continued their decline last month despite increasing signs of the market stabilising, two separate surveys have shown. Prices were down 1.4 per cent in April, the Halifax announced yesterday, while this morning the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed that 29 per cent of surveyors are still reporting falling prices, compared to [...]
Aspiring first time buyers believe house prices are back on the up May 8, 2011 THE number of aspiring first time buyers is at its highest for a year as people increasingly expect house prices to recover. One in three respondents expect house prices to increase, according to a Rightmove survey. At the beginning of the year, just over one in five prospective buyers expected house prices to lift. Yet [...]
PROPERTY NEWS May 5, 2011 YOO ARE GOING TO MUMBAI Yoo, the design brand, has launched a new development in Mumbai. The project is Jade Jagger’s first in India. It is set to comprise 452 apartments of two, three and four bedrooms as well as duplex sky villas spread across four towers. It is scheduled for completion in 2013. RENTS [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS May 4, 2011 MINTS ARE THE NEW BRICS After the success of the Brics, Fidelity is asking whether Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey (Mints) are the investment opportunities of the next decade. Fidelity says “Mints may just have the potential to be as rewarding for investors over the next ten years as BRICs have been in the past [...]
Housing market faces years of gloom April 26, 2011 IT may not feel that way in some parts of Greater London but the housing market remains stuck in the doldrums. This is not surprising: the great housing bubble of the noughties hasn’t finished deflating yet. The readjustment process is continuing, with prices falling in real terms – and there is still a decent way [...]
FTSE buoyed by upbeat corporate results April 26, 2011 Strong corporate results and positive broker research buoyed the FTSE today, leading the market to its highest close in more than two months. The FTSE 100 closed 0.9 per cent higher at 6.069.36 in low volumes following the long Easter weekend and ahead of a second four-day weekend to celebrate the Royal wedding and Mayday. [...]