Trichet’s words could lead to volatility June 7, 2011 FOREX.COM KATHLEEN BROOKS The markets have been embracing the euro with gusto this week. Partly this is a response to the weak US labour market data for May, but it is also due to expectations that the ECB will signal a rate rise in July when it meets on Thursday. The hawkish rhetoric from ECB [...]
Landlords bullish on the future of rental properties June 1, 2011 DESPITE the downbeat outlook on house prices from analysts at Morgan Stanley (see left), UK landlords are increasingly optimistic about their buy-to-let prospects. Forty-nine per cent of landlords think that now is a good time to invest in new properties, according to research by LSL Property Services. Just one per cent are looking at reducing [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 31, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES UK CONSUMER RECOVERY SET TO BE SLOWEST IN 180 YEARS The UK economy is set to experience the slowest pick-up in consumer spending of any post-recession period since 1830, according to a Financial Times analysis of official forecasts. Families are expected to spend just slightly more by 2015 than they were before the [...]
GENERATION RENT May 31, 2011 A GENERATION of Britons fear being squeezed out of the property market and doomed to a lifetime of renting, a survey reveals today. Nearly two thirds of 20 to 45 year olds who do not already have a mortgage say “they have no prospect whatsoever of buying a home,” according to a report by the [...]
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 [...]