Bankers grab luxury homes October 22, 2009 IN a fresh sign that bankers are feeling comfortable enough to splash the cash, enquiries for prime properties in Kensington and Chelsea have jumped in recent weeks, according to estate agents Knight Frank. Goldman Sachs was recently under the spotlight for awarding its 30,000 staff £500,000 each in bonuses, with some top traders set to [...]
THE LONDON REPORT October 22, 2009 The FTSE 100 closed one per cent, or 50.49 points, lower yesterday at 5,207.36, as weaker crude and metals weighed on energy stocks and miners. The index has rallied more than 50 per cent since hitting a low in early March, and is up 17 per cent this year. Energy stocks suffered with crude slipping [...]
The tributes pour in as City A.M. gets to 1,000 October 22, 2009 GORDON BROWNPrime Minister“Congratulations to City A.M. on reaching a thousand editions. Your paper has kept both Westminster and the City informed at a time of great turbulence in the world economy.” SIR VICTOR BLANKFormer chairman, Lloyds Banking“City A.M. has developed into a quality newspaper which sparks boardroom debate with its insight and analysis. It is [...]
Bank united on decision to hold QE, rates October 21, 2009 MINUTES from the Bank of England’s October Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting showed that the nine-member body was unanimous in its decision to keep both the cost of borrowing and quantitative easing (QE) on hold. The MPC also said it believed that the asset purchase programme had had a positive impact on financial markets, through [...]
Myners disagrees with Obama on pay October 21, 2009 IT is almost funny how, in our topsy-turvy world, highly-paid bank workers are now being accused of exploiting the capitalist class in the form of bank shareholders. The latest to make that claim is Lord Myners, the City Minister, who described the present levels of bonuses as “a market failure”, by which he meant proof [...]
Forget active: savvy investors are going for the smart ETFs instead October 21, 2009 WHEN BlackRock acquired Barclays Global Investors and its exchange-traded funds (ETFs) business iShares back in June in a multi-billion dollar deal, it was widely expected that this would give some impetus to the evolution of ETFs both in the US and in the UK. One product that was expected to arrive in the UK was [...]
Goldman sends LSE shares down despite praise for CEO October 21, 2009 The FTSE 100 was all about the power of the analyst today, with a number of individual movers spurred up or down by words of wisdom from the City’s finest. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) shed 2.2 per cent to close at 914p after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock to “neutral” on [...]
A new Glass-Steagall Act wouldn’t work October 20, 2009 WHEN the Governor of the Bank of England – and if the Tories are elected, the next chief financial regulator – calls for investment banks to be separated from retail banks, everybody should sit up and listen carefully. King seems deadly serious, and George Osborne said last night that he agreed with much of the [...]
Qataris make millions from Barclays sale October 20, 2009 GULF state vehicle Qatar Holding yesterday offloaded half of its share warrants in Barclays, netting the bank’s biggest shareholder a fast profit of over £600m. Qatari investors, who still hold a direct shareholding of over seven per cent in Barclays, were issued with the warrants last November at a subscription price of 197.775p, as part [...]
ARE THE QATARIS SIGNALLING THAT THE RECENT RALLY IN BARCLAY’S SHARE PRICE IS OVER BY SELLING UP? October 20, 2009 KEITH BOWMAN HARGREAVES LANSDOWNI would say that the temptation to book over $1bn in profit became too great to ignore. Particularly set against a backdrop of similar funds that lost out on what they thought were bargain banking stocks before the crisis. It is a great opportunity to take profit but still keep a stake. [...]