FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS May 18, 2010 UK IS ABSOLUTE DIAMOND FOR GARTMORE Gartmore has been in the news recently for all of the wrong reasons. However, the fund manager has finally got something to celebrate. Its UK Absolute Return Fund, managed by Ben Wallace and Luke Newman, had its 10 year anniversary this week, and to top it off it posted [...]
WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR BOTH UK RETAIL SALES AND CONSUMER SPENDING? May 16, 2010 PHILIP SHAW | INVESTEC “Our suspicion is that pre-election jitters could have had a negative impact on shoppers, as it appears to have had in the Nationwide measure of consumer confidence. We are pencilling in decline of 0.5 per cent on the month but would warn that the monthly series is unpredictable.” PETER DIXON | [...]
Contract wins give Compass fuel for growth May 12, 2010 COMPASS, the world’s biggest caterer, yesterday said a succession of new contract wins and an improvement in operating margin were behind a 14 per cent increase in first-half pre-tax profit. The group, which counts Chelsea Football Club, London’s O2 arena, the Bank of England and the US Senate among its clients, said it had delivered [...]
Bank of England sticks to its wait-and-see policy approach May 10, 2010 THE Bank of England kept monetary policy on hold yesterday, adopting a wait-and-see attitude in the face of both political and economic uncertainty emanating from Westminster and Greece. As the markets expected, interest rates were kept at their historic low of 0.5 per cent and quantitative easing was on hold at £200bn. Although there are [...]
Lonmin back in profit after heavy losses May 10, 2010 LONMIN swung to a first-half profit after metal prices rebounded and costs fell, the miner said. The platinum producer reported a pre-tax profit of $77m (£51m) for the six months ending in March. The figure beat most analysts’ expectations and compares with a loss of $196m for the same period last year. The South African-based [...]
Timepiece to land trial before going on to bigger things May 6, 2010 THERE is no better trainer of a filly than Henry Cecil. The master of Warren Place showed off his skills in preparing a member of the equine fairer sex for a Classic last week when only the Stewards stopped 66/1 Jacqueline Quest from landing the 1000 Guineas. However, his filly TIMEPIECE can ease the pain [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 5, 2010 Advent International The private equity firm has hired Kevin Beeston, the outgoing chairman of Serco Group, as an operating partner. Beeston will be tasked with helping Advent identify investment opportunities in the business services sector, and will also continue in his role as chairman of Advent’s portfolio company Domestic & General. He has worked for [...]
ECONOMIC DIARY May 3, 2010 WHILE the general election will be the primary concern, there are plenty of other economic data releases that traders should be watching out for over this short trading week. This morning, we will find out how well the UK manufacturing sector thinks it is doing from the April purchasing managers’ index (PMI) at 9.30am. We will [...]
ECONOMIST VIEWS: WHAT WILL THE FED DO THIS WEEK? April 25, 2010 PAUL DALES | CAPITAL ECONOMICS “It is doubtful that the Fed will get any closer to dropping its pledge to keep rates exceptionally low for ‘an extended period’ at the two-day meeting that concludes this Wednesday. In fact, we continue to think that the Fed will keep rates on hold until at least 2012.” PHILIP [...]
Disappointing retail sales to hit GDP data April 22, 2010 RETAIL sales volumes only managed to grow 0.4 per cent last month, disappointing the market which had expected monthly growth of 0.6 per cent and dampening hopes of a strong first quarter GDP?growth figure today. In spite of an upward revision to February’s figure, retail sales volumes contracted by 1.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the [...]