Five reasons for investing with ETFs November 10, 2010 IT HAS not been an easy few weeks for exchange-traded products (ETP). First, analysts as good as wrote off physically backed industrial metal exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) before they had even been launched. And earlier this week, an American report from the Kauffman Foundation criticised ETPs, arguing they might pose a greater threat to the markets [...]
StanChart hires 4,000 staff in Asia November 9, 2010 Standard Chartered yesterday revealed it will create 4,000 jobs in Asia, fuelling fresh fears that London is missing out on a global banking jobs boom. A StanChart spokesman told City A.M. the majority will be based in Singapore, with some in Indonesia. The announcement came as David Cameron and George Osborne arrived in Beijing to [...]
Barclays sees profits tumble November 9, 2010 INVESTORS reacted positively yesterday despite Barclays unveiling quarterly pre-tax profits of £1.27bn (excluding own credit), a 28 per cent drop on last year. Including own credit losses – the effect of mark-to-market write-downs – profit plunged 76 per cent to £327m. Barclays stock climbed by over three per cent throughout the day in part due [...]
Barclays November 9, 2010 DESPITE Barclays having avoided a taxpayer bailout, there’s plenty of fodder for populist banker-bashing in its third-quarter results. Pre-tax profits were down 76 per cent and £1.6bn has been set aside for bonuses. These headline figures ignore the impact of mark-to-market fluctuations in value and the fact that investment bank staff numbers are up 2,000. [...]
FTSE lifted by healthy earnings November 9, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading shares closed higher yesterday, boosted by results from Barclays, Schroders and Associated British Foods. The FTSE 100 closed up 25.23 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,875.19, after closing down 0.4 per cent on Monday. The index is up 8.5 per cent this year and has jumped around 23 per cent since hitting [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 9, 2010 Colliers International Anthony Michael Horrell has taken up the chief executive’s mantle at the real estate advisory firm. The 49-year-old was until recently head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s capital markets group in Europe, spearheading the expansion of the international capital markets business. He spent a total of 27 years at the firm and is also [...]
Indian equities are too expensive to be attractive in the short-term November 9, 2010 PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s visit to India this week affirmed its status as a rising global power and as a country that is set to assume greater importance on the world stage. Its achievements have long been overshadowed by its northern neighbour China but India has quietly marched along the path to development. It is certainly [...]
UK industrial output grows at forecast rate November 9, 2010 British industrial output grew in line with expectations in September, though its manufacturing component was slightly weaker than forecast, official data showed. The figures do not point to any future revision of the initial third-quarter GDP estimate, and will not shift market expectations that the Bank of England will keep interest rates at record lows [...]
Barclays profit hit by weak investment banking November 9, 2010 Barclays said key investment banking income remained weak in the past four months, countering a sharp improvement in bad debts that lifted the British bank’s underlying third-quarter profit. Barclays, whose chief executive John Varley will be succeeded by investment bank boss Bob Diamond at the end of March, said it made an underlying July-September pretax [...]
There’s still no such thing as a free lunch November 7, 2010 MILTON Friedman said that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but even he might have been surprised by the cost of a meal today. World food prices have soared back up to levels last seen in the crisis of 2007-2008, leading some to warn of renewed food riots. Russia recently extended its [...]