FTSE miners lead recovery as China’s infection rate slows March 13, 2020 FTSE miners led London’s blue-chip index higher today as traders welcomed a lower rate of new coronavirus infections in China. Evraz, BHP, Anglo American, Glencore and Petra Diamonds all posted double-digit gains as the FTSE 100 surged over eight per cent higher following yesterday’s record sell-off. Online trader IG analyst Joshua Mahony linked the jump [...]
Coronavirus: US travel ban decimates airline stocks March 12, 2020 President Donald Trump’s travel ban on European citizens entering the US due to coronavirus fears sent airline stocks to new lows today after weeks of pressure on the sector. Recent FTSE 100 dropout Tui led the falls, posting a 10.4 per cent decline by the mid-morning, while British Airways owner IAG was not far behind, [...]
The government should keep calm, focus on facts, and commit to a Covid-19 strategy March 12, 2020 If ever there were a case of Man proposes but God disposes, the Covid-19 outbreak would fit the bill. A subject that was not even in the popular lexicon at the turn of the year has become our only topic du jour. If this continues for much longer, we may soon be dividing time into [...]
Achieving budgetary balance in a virus crisis March 12, 2020 A proportionate response needs to be adopted in the face of the spread of Covid-19. That was certainly the sense from yesterday’s Budget. A calm and measured chancellor presented this government’s first Budget during very unusual times. This outbreak has been devastating, initially in China, but now in Italy and Iran too, with many countries [...]
John Menzies suspends dividend over coronavirus March 10, 2020 John Menzies will temporarily suspend its dividend for this year after warning of an expected 2020 profit blow from coronavirus. The coronavirus outbreak prompted Menzies to issue a profit warning last month, saying it expects a hit of between £6m and £9m if the outbreak subsides towards the end of the second quarter. The aviation [...]
George Osborne’s former adviser Rupert Harrison: Extra spending in Budget is ‘welcome’ March 10, 2020 Rupert Harrison has spent the last few weeks monitoring obscure economic indicators – everything from pollution in Chinese cities to traffic in Milan – in an effort to guide his clients at investment giant Blackrock through the worst market crisis since 2008. He’s no stranger to financial turbulence, however, having been chained at the hip [...]
Tesco sells Thai and Malaysian businesses for £8.2bn March 9, 2020 Tesco has sold its Thai and Malaysian businesses to CP Group for £8.2bn, the supermarket giant announced this morning. Following the deal Tesco will return £5bn to shareholders and make a £2.5bn pension contribution. The disposal of the two Asian units, which were operated under the Lotus brand, will simplify the group’s structure and allow [...]
Tory heavyweights propose amendment to oust Huawei March 6, 2020 A group of Conservative MPs will next week seek to pass a law banning Huawei from the UK’s telecoms infrastructure after 2022. Tory heavyweights including Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Owen Paterson, David Davis and Damian Green have proposed an amendment to the government’s telecoms infrastructure bill that would bar companies deemed to be “high risk [...]
Car industry calls for electric vehicle tax break as new sales decline March 5, 2020 The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has called for a tax break on all new battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric cars in order to encourage the take up of more environmentally friendly models in the UK. According to the SMMT, cutting VAT on such models would reduce the [...]
Digital sovereignty: Time for Britain to take back control of our data March 5, 2020 They might not realise it, but the average person uses 36 cloud-based services every day. Chatting on WhatsApp, watching Netflix, sharing your work calendar with colleagues — all these services use the cloud, a network of remote servers accessed over the internet. But the cloud systems used by Europe have long been far from European. [...]