THE MONTH AHEAD in association with GFT January 3, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● International seed and fertiliser company Monsanto publishes its first-quarter earnings on Thursday. ● Spread betting company IG Group publishes its interim results on 18 January. ● AstraZeneca, BSkyB, Charles Stanley and Vedanta Resources all publish earnings announcements on 27 January. ● Aluminium producer Alcoa traditionally kicks off the US’s fourth-quarter earnings season, publishing [...]
JJB in £30m fundraising plan December 24, 2010 JJB has has announced plans to raise £31.5m from shareholders, after issuing a warning it could breach the terms of a banking agreement. The struggling sports retailer said it was raising funds from major shareholders including Crystal Amber and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. It added that its lender, Bank of Scotland, had [...]
FTSE briefly breaks 6,000 mark in final pre-holiday trading December 23, 2010 LONDON’S last full trading day before Christmas saw the lead share index briefly break the symbolic 6,000 mark before finally closing at 5,982. Energy shares led the rally with BP up 1.4 per cent, underpinned by gains in the price of crude, which held around $90 (£58.30) a barrel and neared a two-year high. Some [...]
John Lewis sales up in Christmas run-in December 23, 2010 John Lewis sales were up 4.3 per cent from Sunday to Wednesday compared with the same period last year – with jewellery and watches helping to fuel the rise. The retailer has been giving regular trading updates which have been used as barometer for the performance of the sector. In beauty products Molton Brown’s “A [...]
Happy Christmas to all our readers December 22, 2010 AS another year draws to a close we at City A.M. have good reason to feel fortunate about the way things turned out in 2010. Firstly, it was a sensational year for news, both financial and political. In the financial sphere, there was the takeover of Cadbury by Kraft, which brought all sorts of calls [...]
Will the weather affect your holiday plans? December 22, 2010 MARTIN ZETTER | LLOYDS “No, I don’t think it will. I’ll be fine this Christmas. I’m staying at home so the weather doesn’t affect my plans.” ALAN DIXON | INTER HANNOVER “I’ll be absolutely fine, I am at home this Christmas. It’s getting to work that is hard!” JACK MANDUIT | DELOITTE “Hopefully the weather [...]
London’s festive sporting highlights December 22, 2010 WITH the weather having potentially put paid to any pre-planned foreign-based festive frolics, City A.M. has heroically rescued Christmas by pointing you in the direction of some of the sporting highlights the capital will be hosting. FOOTBALL Pivotal games at the top and bottom of the Premier League will be staged in London this weekend. [...]
Weather woes likely to deplete Barmy Army at MCG December 22, 2010 ENGLAND supporters fear their numbers will be depleted for the potentially decisive fourth Ashes Test as snow chaos prevents fans from flying out to Australia. A record crowd of more than 90,000 is anticipated for the match in Melbourne, which begins on Boxing Day and could see England retain the urn with victory. But the [...]
Banks give FTSE a boost as pre-Christmas rally continues December 22, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index pushed higher yesterday, supported by gains from banks as reports China is ready to buy Portuguese bonds eased European debt concerns. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 31.69 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 5,983.49, edging ever closer towards the 6,000 level last seen in June 2008. The blue [...]
Odd jobs December 22, 2010 IT’S a busy time for us, the run up to Christmas, because we have six companies coming in for their carol concerts, big banks and law firms, and the local school also comes. Midnight mass on Christmas eve is the big one for us, and that is mostly for locals, we get about 150 or [...]