Antofagasta to pay $1bn extra to shareholders March 8, 2011 CHILE-FOCUSED miner Antofagasta revealed a huge special dividend of almost $1bn (£619m) yesterday to share last year’s rewards from booming copper prices and increased production. The firm said pre-tax profit rose 79 per cent to $2.5bn, boosted by an 18 per cent rise in copper production. However, the results missed some forecasts once one-off gains [...]
Hedging your portfolio with CFDs March 7, 2011 IF YOU don’t already, perhaps you should consider hedging your portfolio with contracts for difference (CFD). Provided you have enough time to actively manage your positions and are familiar with their workings, CFDs are worthy of some serious consideration. For many investors, the idea of using leverage to hedge is enough to put them off [...]
ACWHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 3, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES HEDGE FUNDS HEAD FOR MALTA TO ESCAPE REGULATION Some of London’s biggest hedge fund managers are shifting their operations to Malta in response to both the rising costs of business and the growing regulatory burden in the UK. The Mediterranean island is emerging alongside traditional rivals to London, such as Swiss towns Geneva [...]
Scrap dozens of tax reliefs, Osborne told March 3, 2011 INCOME tax and national insurance tax should be merged and dozens of tax allowances abolished, according to recommendations published by the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). The OTS, convened in July by chancellor George Osborne to overhaul the UK’s increasingly complex tax system, has suggested that the Treasury get rid of 47 tax reliefs that [...]
Impressive results that should give the share price a much-needed lift March 3, 2011 AVIVA’s results and strategy update should cheer investors for several reasons. The winter weather that has hindered other insurers’ results didn’t even dent its £2.4bn pre-tax profit. Its strength in life insurance and commitment to cost-cutting are welcome, particularly against a backdrop of new regulation such as the ban on using gender in insurance calculations [...]
Time to tackle our terrible tax code March 3, 2011 AMAZINGLY, the world’s fastest talker can speak 637 words aloud a minute. Yes, seriously. The record-holder is a Londoner called Steve Woodmore, who has featured repeatedly in the Guinness Book of Records. Tolstoy’s War and Peace comes in at a hefty 1,204 pages; it would therefore take 12 and a half hours for our record-holder [...]
Time to tackle our terrible tax code March 2, 2011 AMAZINGLY, the world’s fastest talker can speak 637 words aloud a minute. Yes, seriously. The record-holder is a Londoner called Steve Woodmore, who has featured repeatedly in the Guinness Book of Records. Tolstoy’s War and Peace comes in at a hefty 1,204 pages; it would therefore take 12 and a half hours for our record-holder [...]
Silver boom boosts Fresnillo March 1, 2011 MEXICAN silver miner Fresnillo was yesterday the latest firm to post bumper gains from the commodities boom, more than doubling its pre-tax profit to $1bn (£615m). The firm said the price charged for its gold and silver rose 27 and 40 per cent respectively during the year, on production up 33.4 and 1.7 per cent [...]
Stuart Gulliver is not a man in a hurry February 28, 2011 STUART Gulliver has made no secret of his long-held desire to win the top job. Having coveted the prize for so many years, he might have imagined taking over in more propitious circumstances; no-one dreams about their first set of results knocking £4bn off the market cap. But during his three decades of service, Gulliver [...]
Chicago boom looks good for US factories February 28, 2011 CHICAGO’S purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reached a 22-year high in February, surprising economists and boding well for today’s US-wide manufacturing results. The PMI hit 71.2 this month, driven upwards by growth in production and new orders, which reached their highest level – 75.9 – since 1983. All index scores above 50 indicate economic expansion. “This [...]