FTSE ends day with slump as Wall Street’s Nasdaq plunges nearly three per cent May 4, 2021 The FTSE 100 slipped back below the 7,000 point mark by the market close, despite a strong start to the week’s trading after the Bank Holiday weekend. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 0.67 per cent by the end of the day, with banking stocks, including HSBC Holdings, Barclays and Standard Chartered posing the biggest drag on [...]
UK banks provided over $50bn in financing for coal-exposed firms from 2018 to 2020 May 4, 2021 The UK’s biggest banks provided $56bn worth of financing for firms involved in the coal industry between 2018 and 2020, new research today has found. Of the top five banks exposed to the sector, Barclays provided by far the most financing to firms on the Global Coal Exit list, with $27bn. HSBC and Standard Chartered [...]
UK and India free trade deal talks to start in autumn, says minister May 4, 2021 The UK and India will begin talks over a full free trade deal in the autumn that will “double” trade between the two countries, trade minister Liz Truss has said. Truss told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Britain wanted to see India’s tariffs on imported cars and whiskey reduced or removed as part of [...]
India’s Covid crisis makes Barclays and other banks to shift call centre operations back to UK May 3, 2021 Barclays has announced it will shift some of its Indian call centre operations back to the UK as staff in the South-Asian country are struggling to cope with the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. A range of other UK and US banks and companies are mulling to do the same, according to multiple media reports in India [...]
FTSE closes higher as US stocks pause after busy week for earnings April 30, 2021 The FTSE 100 closed higher today as the economic recovery optimism poised the index for its largest monthly gain since November last year. The blue-chip index rose 0.2 per cent, boosted by positive earnings updates from AstraZeneca and Smurfit Kappa. Meanwhile, the mid-cap FTSE 250 also rose by 0.56 per cent. Both indexes have risen [...]
Barclays profit more than doubles to £2.4bn, as it shifts call centres to UK from India April 30, 2021 Barclays’ profit more than doubled in the first quarter despite not releasing cash set aside to cover bad loans from the pandemic like its British rivals. The bank posted a pre-tax profit of £2.4bn for the first three months of the year, up from £923m in the same period a year earlier and beating an [...]
London ranked most optimistic UK city for career prospects April 30, 2021 Londoners have been crowned the most optimistic about their career prospects, according to research by LinkedIn, as the City emerges from a third national lockdown. LinkedIn’s latest research has found that 68 per cent of people in the capital are feeling optimistic about their job chances. Across the rest of the country, 61 per cent [...]
Care home landlord Impact Healthcare REIT taps shareholders for £35m April 30, 2021 Care home landlord Impact Healthcare Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) has raised £35m through a share placing to pay down debt and fund new investments. The firm said this morning that 31,690,327 ordinary shares will be issued at a price of 111.5p per share, with the proceeds used to repay its revolving credit facility. The [...]
India hit by vaccine shortage a day before it widened its jabs drive April 30, 2021 India has been hit by a Covid-19 vaccines shortage a day before it had planned to widen its nationwide inoculation programme, authorities said today. It comes as the world’s second-most populous country saw another daily record in new cases, reporting 386,452 infections in the last 24 hours. However, medical experts and journalists have warned that [...]
Hikma makes strong start to year, receives approval for opioid treatment April 30, 2021 Hikma Pharmaceuticals today said it has received approval to launch its new KLOXXADO nasal spray for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose. Delivering a trading update, the company reported a strong start to 2021, helped by its injectables, generics and branded divisions meeting expectations. Hikma expects its full year generics revenue to be towards the [...]