Banks take FTSE 100 lower after US figures disappoint October 15, 2009 THE FTSE 100 closed lower on yesterday as banks fell after US banking earnings failed to meet some expectations, while miners tracked metal prices down. The index ended down 0.6 per cent, or 33.15 points at 5,222.95, retreating from a 56-week closing high set on Wednesday. Although third-quarter earnings from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup came [...]
Sainsbury’s rises on bid talk October 15, 2009 J SAINSBURY shares jumped 10 per cent yesterday on market talk that Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund was planning a renewed offer for the supermarket chain after dropping a bid in 2007. Sainsbury’s, Britain’s third-biggest supermarket group, the 26 per cent shareholder Qatari Investment Authority (QIA) and the Sainsbury family, which own around 17 per cent, [...]
WHERE WILL XSTRATA LOOK FOR DEALS NOW THE ANGLO MERGER IS OFF? October 15, 2009 RICHARD CURR PRIME CFDSXstrata can find better deals than Anglo, so it’s no surprise it has walked away. The Anglo that Xstrata was looking at a year ago looks somewhat different. We suspect Xstrata might go for some low hanging fruit, as in Lonmin or First Quantum, but we wouldn’t rule out another approach for [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 14, 2009 Ambrian PartnersThe stockbroking firm has appointed Philip Dorgan, one of the most respected retail analysts in the market, to its research team. Dorgan has been a retail analyst at rival broker Panmure Gordon for the past 13 years, latterly as head of research. He was also head of European retail at Goldman Sachs between 1988 [...]
Return of optimism bolsters FTSE as JP Morgan cheers October 14, 2009 BRITAIN’S top share index surged 2 per cent yesterday, hitting its highest closing level in more than a year, as quarterly earnings from JPMorgan Chase and Intel lifted investor's sentiment. The FTSE 100 ended up 101.95 points higher at 5,256.10, after closing 1.1 per cent weaker on Tuesday. The UK benchmark, which tumbled more than [...]
Alistair Darling is being unfair to Lloyds October 13, 2009 ONCE again, the government has got it completely wrong on Lloyds Banking Group. Chancellor Alistair Darling should be happy that the bank is trying to raise private funding to remove itself from the asset protection scheme, a flawed contraption which never really made any sense. Instead, however, the Treasury is turning the screws on the [...]
Myners meets with foreign banks October 13, 2009 Lord Myners, the treasury minister, will today hold a meeting over bonuses with the major foreign banks operating in the UK. He will urge them to agree to a “level playing field” over pay and bonuses. UK banks have already agreed on voluntary rules on remuneration, and have pledged greater transparency in the way they [...]
Banks drag down the FTSE as miners and energy drop October 13, 2009 BRITAIN’S top shares closed 1.1 per cent lower yesterday, as weakness in banks outweighed strength in defensive issues, while sentiment was dampened by falls on Wall Street after disappointing corporate earnings. The benchmark FTSE 100 closed 56.02 points lower at 5,154.15, slipping below the 5,200 level which it hit for the first time in more [...]
FTSEcloses at one-year high as energy and mining rally October 12, 2009 RALLYING energy stocks and miners, spurred by firmer commodity prices and growing optimism on the corporate outlook and global economy, helped the top share index to its highest close in over a year yesterday. Global equity markets were given a shot in the arm by forecast-beating results from Philips ahead of earnings from other major [...]
Barclays seeks third party for CLO portfolio October 12, 2009 BARCLAYS will look to a third party if it sells £4bn worth of Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLOs), analysts said yesterday. The bank is understood to be weighing up a plan to rid itself of the CLOs in a bid to calm investors worried by the risky nature of the investments and remove the potentially volatile [...]