FTSE surges upward to join US stock markets July 18, 2013 Following record breaking gains from US stock markets (the S&P also broke new highs shortly after posting), the FTSE is up over one per cent, driven by rallies in the Royal Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen Asset Management, Barclays and the London Stock Exchange. Lloyds Banking Group, Kingfisher and ASOS have also hit new highs. This [...]
Morgan Stanley revises down US GDP forecast July 18, 2013 Morgan Stanley has cut its second quarter GDP forecast for the US to 0.3 per cent from 0.4 per cent. The unexpected fall in housing starts and permits in June was probably temporary, said economist Ted Wieseman, but enough to warrant cutting the outlook. After a 9.4 percent pullback from the February cycle high, single-family [...]
London Stock Exchange reports solid revenue growth and a good start from new acquisition July 18, 2013 The London Stock Exchange has reported a 39 per cent annual increase in revenues to £249.7m for the three months ended 30 June 2013, boosted by £49m in revenues from its LCH.Clearnet acquisition and growth across all business divisions. Commenting on performance in the past quarter, group chief executiveXavier Rolet said: The Group has made [...]
Unemployment down but more time spent jobless July 17, 2013 THE NUMBER of people without jobs who are looking for work fell by 57,000 between March and May, against the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday. Yet the number of people who are unemployed for more than a year or two is on the rise. In the same space of [...]
City Moves for 18 July 2013 | Who’s switching jobs July 17, 2013 Westhouse Securities The broking group has announced the appointment of Paul Locke as investment funds analyst. He joins from Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, where he was a senior funds analyst. Prior to that, he was a senior funds analyst at Canaccord Genuity. Lloyds Bank John Richardson has joined Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking as head of building [...]
FTSE lifted as miners report robust output July 17, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 rose yesterday, with miners cheered by a string of solid output numbers from the likes of BHP Billiton, and with the US Federal Reserve reassuring that stimulus will only be cut if the economy is strong. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke signalled plans to start scaling back bond purchases this year could be [...]
Barclays fined £300m for rigging US energy market July 17, 2013 THE US Regulator today upheld a $453m (£300m) fine on Barclays and four of its traders for manipulating the energy markets. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that the bank deliberately lost money in the power markets between 2006 and 2008 for financial benefit and that the traders knew this was illegal. Barclays must [...]
Gilts hit by new rigging scandal July 16, 2013 A NEW rigging scandal reared its head in the City yesterday, after it was revealed that an alleged attempt by traders to fix pricing in government bond markets has been under investigation since 2011. The Bank of England’s director of markets Paul Fisher told a panel of MPs that the central bank had passed details [...]
Barclays hit by $453m energy trading fines July 16, 2013 THE US authorities last night confirmed Barclays and four of its traders will have to pay fines totalling $453m (£299m) for allegedly manipulating the Californian energy markets. The bank, which has been fighting the claims, has been given 30 days to pay up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The regulator said the bank and [...]
Barclays hires finance chief from JP Morgan July 16, 2013 BARCLAYS’ group finance director Chris Lucas will step down early next year, the bank announced yesterday, the final member of Bob Diamond’s top team to quit following last year’s Libor fixing scandal. He will be replaced by Tushar Morzaria, who is currently chief finance officer in corporate and investment banking at JP Morgan. Morzaria will [...]