London shares decline due to weak US data with banks and miners hit worst July 15, 2010 WEAK US data intensified anxiety about economic recovery and dragged Britain’s top share index to a lower close yesterday, with risk-sensitive banks and commodity stocks hit hardest. The FTSE 100 ended 42.23 points or 0.8 per cent lower at 5,211.29. It closed down 0.3 per cent on Wednesday, snapping a six-day winning streak. Producer prices [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS July 15, 2010 BP: ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY At last, some good news for BP. Its stock has sunk so low – closing yesterday at 401.75p – that investors are jumping at the chance to snap up cheap stakes in the oil giant. Clients of Barclays Stockbrokers have been piling into the stock – a third of [...]
Treasury to meet with bankers July 14, 2010 Britain’s biggest banks are set to clash with the government today as ministers try to force HSBC, Barclays and Santander to agree to commitments on business lending. George Osborne and Vince Cable are also expected to push for the introduction of net lending targets when they meet with the banking bosses at the Treasury this [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 14, 2010 Macquarie Capital Advisors The corporate advisory group has appointed Marc Middleton, left, as vice chairman of its European advisory business and Ian Brimecome as executive chairman of its European financial institutions group (FIG). Middleton formerly spent 24 years at NM Rothschild, including eight as global head of the telecoms group. Brimecome became a senior adviser [...]
BarCap equities chief resigns July 13, 2010 Barclays Capital’s head of EMEA equities Dixit Joshi has resigned from the bank. He will take up an equivalent role at Deutsche Bank in October, according to reports last night. Joshi oversaw a massive expansion of BarCap’s European and Asian businesses as BarCap sought to become a full-service investment bank, and hired close to 1,000 [...]
Budd insists that OBR is independent July 13, 2010 THE head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was yesterday forced to deny there was a conspiracy to revise down how many jobs would be lost through George Osborne’s budget. Sir Alan Budd received a grilling from the Treasury select committee yesterday over accusations his Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) came under government pressure [...]
Fuel price dip cuts inflation rate for June July 13, 2010 FALLING fuel prices helped annual inflation to ease in June for the second month in a row but core inflation, which excludes energy and food costs, worrying rose last month, official data showed yesterday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the consumer prices index (CPI) eased to 3.2 per cent last month from 3.4 [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 13, 2010 Barclays Corporate Barclays’ corporate banking arm has appointed Colin Nutt as a vice chairman with responsibility for its financial institutions business. Nutt, who was previously head of financial institutions at the bank, will be tasked with growing the business within the group, including exploring new opportunities among the Barclays Capital client base as part of [...]
FTSE climbs for sixth day on optimism over US earnings and stress test hopes July 13, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares climbed for the sixth consecutive session yesterday, led by banks on optimism that US peers would post strong earnings and lift the sector, and that Europe’s lenders would pass a key stress test. The FTSE 100 closed 104 points, or two per cent, higher at 5,271.02, hitting its highest close in over [...]
Barclays hires bankers for Asia business July 13, 2010 BARCLAYS has hired six senior bankers in Singapore for its wealth management business, including Soh Chye Guan from HSBC, as it seeks to tap into growing numbers of high net worth individuals in Southeast Asia. The move comes after the bank, which managed £151.2bn globally under its wealth management arm Barclays Wealth, poached three senior [...]