Miners and banks boost FTSE 100 March 31, 2010 STRONGER miners and banking stocks outweighed falls from defensive stocks to leave Britain’s top share index slightly higher by the close yesterday while BSkyB gained after an expected pay-TV review from Ofcom. The FTSE 100 index ended 7.32 points, or 0.1 per cent, higher at 5,679.64 having closed 0.7 per cent lower on Tuesday and [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 31, 2010 RBC Wealth Management The wealth manager, part of the Royal Bank of Canada, has appointed Sarah Macdonald as a director, focusing on UK entrepreneurial clients. Macdonald has worked for over a decade in the financial services industry at both Barclays Wealth and Morgan Stanley. She specialises in advising high net worth clients on asset management [...]
Providers make a dash for share of ETC market March 31, 2010 WHEN it was announced at the end of last year that investment vehicles traded on exchanges, mostly in the form of index-tracking funds, had passed the $1 trillion mark globally, it was a sign that listed products were growing in popularity. But while exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have made their mark already here in Europe, it [...]
RBS hit with £29m fine for price sharing March 30, 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland has been slapped with a £29m fine after being caught attempting to share loan prices with its biggest rival. The move backfired when Barclays staff shopped the RBS workers to the regulator. The Office of Fair Trading said RBS executives broke competition law by giving their counterparts at Barclays information on [...]
Investec buys up remainder of Rensburg March 30, 2010 SOUTH African bank Investec yesterday said it will stump up a hefty premium to acquire the remainder of Rensburg Sheppards, the fund manager in which it already holds a 47 per cent stake. Investec, which merged its private-client stockbroking business Carr Sheppards Crosthwaite with Rensburg in 2005, will pay 1.63 new shares of its own [...]
FTSE 100 is dragged down by banks despite healthy UK economic recovery March 30, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index ended 0.7 per cent lower yesterday, dragged down by banks, which extended the previous session’s losses, in thin trading ahead of the Easter break. The FTSE 100 index ended down 38.34 points at 5,672.32, having closed above 5,700 for the last three sessions. The index hit a 21-month intra-day peak at [...]
Calvert verdict convinces City FSA has teeth March 30, 2010 THE recent conviction of Malcolm Calvert was the third successful criminal prosecution of insider dealing brought by the FSA and two further such prosecutions are ongoing. Significantly, the first FSA insider dealing criminal prosecution was not until 2008 and it is evident they the regulator is now intent on ramping up criminal prosecutions and have [...]
CHANCELLOR CHALLENGE: WE RATE LAST NIGHT’S TV DEBATE March 29, 2010 ALISTAIR DARLING LABOUR Performance Darling gave a solid if uninspiring performance, adopting a reassuring tone that supported Labour’s “don’t wreck the recovery” theme. But he stuttered when pressed by his rivals, and adopted arguments and language that was probably too complex for the average viewer. 6/10 Content Having delivered his Budget last week, Alistair Darling [...]
George Osborne begins his fightback March 29, 2010 AT long last some red meat from the Tories. Their proposal for a partial cancellation of Labour’s national insurance tax hike is a small but important step in the right direction; it is good to see that they now want to pursue a dual strategy of deficit reduction combined with selected supply-side tax cuts. The [...]
Land Securities chair to take on new Barclays role March 29, 2010 LAND Securities chairman Alison Carnwath yesterday added another string to her boardroom bow as she signalled her intention to take up a non-executive directorship at Barclays in August. Carnwath’s new Barclays role will fill the gap left by her chairmanship of futures broker MF Global, a role she will hand over to ex-Goldman Sachs chief [...]