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 [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES DHL CHIEF PROMISES ACTION OVER BOMB FEARS The head of one of the three big air-express companies has reacted to the parcel bombs sent from Yemen and Greece by pledging better screening of customers and packages before they reach airports. “What we need to do is improve surveillance at the pick-up point, have [...]
Standard gets 98.5 per cent rights backing November 7, 2010 STANDARD Chartered said investors representing 98.5 per cent of its shares signed up for its $5.3bn(£3.3bn) rights issue, which will boost the Asia-focused bank’s capital ahead of tougher global rules. Standard Chartered yesterday said it had received valid acceptances in respect of 256.7m shares offered to shareholders. Bookrunners will sell the shares not taken up, [...]
Slow trading to hit Barclays November 7, 2010 BARCLAYS is tomorrow expected to reveal that investment banking income plunged in the third quarter as trading activity declined, though impairments may fall due to an improved outlook in Spain. Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm led by Bob Diamond, who is due to take over from John Varley as chief executive next year, is [...]
BoE Inflation Report set to widen debate November 7, 2010 THE Bank of England’s quarterly Inflation Report will be scrutinised particularly closely by the market for clues to the future direction of British monetary policy when it is published on Wednesday. The three-way split among the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members has created growing uncertainty about the timing and future direction of changes to interest [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 5, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NEW HOLE IN CONNAUGHT DEBT The scale of debt at Connaught, the collapsed property services group, will be greater than previously thought after administrators found 50,000 invoices that the company had not accounted for. Management accounts had led administrators from KPMG to believe that the social housing maintenance arm of Connaught owed £46m [...]
Chequing in with the best November 4, 2010 In a wonderful example of stating the obvious, the Office of Fair Trading yesterday published evidence that retail banking in Britain isn’t very competitive. For most people, that will probably come as no surprise. Though customer service has been getting better in almost every other industry, in retail banking limited weekend opening hours, unhelpful call [...]