Volkswagen scandal: With BMW and others now in the firing line, should the car industry be fearing serious contagion from the VW crisis? September 24, 2015 Louise Cooper, a chartered financial analyst, columnist, broadcaster and blogger at coopercity.co.uk, says Yes Three things have struck me since this story began. First, quite how much the software cheated – emissions were up to 40 times higher when the device was turned off. VW official diesel emissions data was not that different to other [...]
Demand fears hit materials – New York Report September 23, 2015 LOSSES in materials and energy shares as weak Chinese and US factory data added to growth worries led to US stocks ending down slightly yesterday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 50.58 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 16,279.89, the S&P 500 lost 3.98 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,938.76 and the Nasdaq Composite [...]
George Osborne criticised for handing £3m of taxpayers’ money to China football programmes September 23, 2015 The UK Treasury is giving a £3m funding boost to grassroots football in China. Read more: Real Madrid teams up with Alibaba as European football chases Chinese football market As part of his week-long tour of China chancellor George Osborne revealed the government was backing a "revolutionary" programme run by the British Council and the Premier [...]
Chinese economy: Slowdown fears renewed as manufacturing industry activity falls to new low September 23, 2015 China’s manufacturing sector has fallen to a six-and-a-half year low, renewing fears of a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy, according to a survey. The Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell from 47.3 in August to 47 in September, missing expectations of a 47.5 reading. A figure below 50 suggests contraction in manufacturing, [...]
The future of the FTSE 100: What next? The quarterly reshuffle has changed the complexion of the leading index September 23, 2015 The Bloodbath continued yesterday as mining shares plummeted further and the FTSE dipped below 6,000 points. Glencore, whose shares fell by 10.63 per cent yesterday, only graduated to the elite index in 2011, but the commodities supercycle has come to a juddering halt, depressing the internationally exposed FTSE. This week also saw one [...]
Sadiq Khan: Can a Labour mayor make City Hall pro-business? Labour mayoral candidate on what separates him from Jeremy Corbyn September 23, 2015 Sitting in a cafe around the corner from the Labour party’s headquarters in Westminster, Sadiq Khan says that he and the new Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, are not always in agreement. “Ken Livingstone as the Labour mayor often disagreed with the Labour leadership, Boris Johnson as the Conservative mayor often disagreed with the Conservative [...]
IG Group posts £20m jump in revenue after summer of volatility September 22, 2015 ONLINE trading firm IG Group reported a 24 per cent jump in revenue during the first quarter of its 2016 financial year, up to £106m from £85.6m in the same period of last year. Revenue in the UK and Ireland was up by 23 per cent, to £56.4m, “driven by growth in both active client [...]
As its economic growth continues to falter, is George Osborne right to prioritise close relations with China? September 22, 2015 James Sproule, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, says Yes No country can maintain breakneck economic growth forever, and China faces some significant challenges. The biggest will be moving towards a system where market signals replace government initiatives. Britain is right to want to play a leading role in this transition. China’s GDP stands [...]
IMF’s Christine Lagarde says downside risks to global growth increased September 22, 2015 International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Christine Lagarde today warned that the downside risks to the global economy have increased. "The downside risks are greater than they were," Lagarde said at a Brookings Institution event on global economic growth. She cited the commodity price rout, monetary policy realignment, as well as China. Fresh concerns over the [...]
Chancellor George Osborne and City minister Harriet Baldwin on why China is key to securing London’s future September 22, 2015 This is a critical moment in Britain’s relationship with China. The government is clear – we want to build strong links with every part of China and recent volatility should not and will not put us off. Instead, it should drive us forward. We must seek to integrate China’s financial markets with our own, [...]