Financial shares buoy FTSE 100 January 14, 2013 The blue chip index edged up in early trading, but failed to replicate strong gains overnight in Asia. Resources and financial shares were in favour this morning, with oil and gas services provider Petrofac the top FTSE 100 riser. Eurasian Natural Resources was up 1.58 per cent, as Credit Suisse upgraded the stock from “neutral” [...]
State pension is ripped up in radical reforms January 13, 2013 THE COALITION will finally unveil its pensions white paper at 3.30pm today, unleashing a raft of radical reforms on the UK state pension system. Pension groups have welcomed the changes, which introduce a universal state pension of around £145 per week, cut down on means-testing, and end a “horrendously complex” four-tier system. The proposals will [...]
Child benefit for better off ending today January 7, 2013 THE GOVERNMENT yesterday acknowledged today’s child benefit changes are not perfect, but insisted removing the handouts for high earners is still a step in the right direction. Any household with at least one person earning over £50,000 will lose some of its child benefit, with those on more than £60,000 seeing the cash stopped completely. [...]
FTSE 100 slips as miners lead index down January 4, 2013 The blue chip index was broadly flat in early deals, as it failed to replicate its landmark day of trading on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 edged down by around 0.15 per cent this morning. Miners led the way down as worries that the US Fed might halt its monetary easing programme and concerns over US [...]
Banking shares rise on FTSE 100 as UBS fined $1.5bn December 19, 2012 The blue chip index moved towards nine-month highs this morning, as optimism of a US budget deal boosted the FTSE 100. Financial shares were in the spotlight, as Swiss bank UBS agreed a $1.5bn (£940m) fine for manipulating the Libor benchmark. The redress was in line with expectations, and UBS shares were trading around 0.3 [...]
Who’s switching jobs December 18, 2012 Adveq The asset management firm has promoted Sanjay Gupta to executive director. He joined in 2008 as a senior associate in its investment management team, and he is currently head of the Adveq Opportunity programme and leads its US buyout and turnaround investment activity. State Street Global Advisors The asset management division of State Street [...]
The welfare trade-off: Why raising benefits doesn’t boost the economy December 17, 2012 DAVID Cameron often says that growth is the coalition’s priority. Yet the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review stated its priorities included aid, the NHS, fairness and social mobility. Clearly, some of these will directly conflict with the growth agenda. Public policy inevitably entails trade-offs. We should therefore be suspicious about policies that supposedly produce the “double [...]
Taxpayers face £50m bill from Comet failure December 16, 2012 THE owners of Comet are set to recover £50m from the collapse of the electricals chain while taxpayers are expected to fork out around £50m in unpaid tax and redundancy costs. A report by administrator Deloitte due to be published today is expected to show that Hailey Acquisitions Limited (HAL), Comet’s parent company, is entitled [...]
Rules against aggressive tax avoidance delayed December 11, 2012 NEW rules that will ban companies and individuals from engaging in aggressive tax avoidance schemes will not be implemented until at least summer 2013, according to draft legislation released yesterday. The General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR), which will give HMRC the power to identify and act against legal tax arrangements that are “abusive”, was due to be enforced [...]
What the other papers say this Morning December 11, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Call for cleaner succession strategies Companies must improve their succession planning and make sure they have strong candidates ready to take the helm as chief executive, or risk undermining shareholder value and damaging market performance. The Association of British Insurers (ABI), which represents some of the UK’s biggest investors, gave the warning as [...]