SHOULD THE MPC PAY ATTENTION TO THE STRONG UPTREND IN UK INFLATION ? January 17, 2010 MICHAEL SAUNDERS | CITIGROUP I doubt the MPC will totally dismiss the inflation upsurge because of the risk that its anti-inflation credibility continues to erode. Outside recession, an inflation targeting central bank cannot credibly ignore such large and repeated upside surprises in inflation data. PHILIP SHAW | INVESTEC We do not envisage significant concerns here, [...]
Economic Diary January 17, 2010 WHILE US banks will be dominating the calendar across the Atlantic next week, in Britain it is definitely the economic releases that will be taking centre stage. Kicking off is the property website Rightmove’s January house asking price survey, released this morning. The survey shows a monthly rise of 0.4 per cent and a 4.1 [...]
Banks and miners lift FTSE but retail shares take a dive January 14, 2010 STRENGTH in miners helped Britain’s top share index to a 0.5 per cent rise by yesterday’s close after soaring output figures from Rio Tinto boosted the sector, but retailers fell on weak trading updates. The FTSE 100 ended 24.72 points higher at 5,498.20 after falling for two days, pressured by China’s decision to tighten banks’ [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 14, 2010 XSTRATA Investec Securities yesterday initiated coverage on what it called “the predator of the mining industry”. The broker put a “buy” recommendation on the stock, saying that looking beyond Xstrata’s M&A capabilities, the firm has excellent organic growth prospects and the best leverage of its peer group to rising commodity prices. BOVIS HOMES Panmure Gordon [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 14, 2010 Cazenove Capital The asset management firm has appointed Louis Greening as a desk-based UK advisory sales consultant. Greening joins from Skandia, where he has worked in the London-based sales team for the past two years. Prior to that, he was at Friends Provident. In his new role, he will be responsible for building new relationships [...]
Take the plunge, don’t be afraid January 14, 2010 SITTING in a leather armchair in the atrium just below his office in Chancery Lane, Grant Challis is musing on the last two years. In that time he has gone from working for a listed investment bank to starting up his own firm, Frostrow Capital: “The scary part is taking the plunge, the reality is [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 11, 2010 TOMKINS Numis has upgraded its 2009 and 2010 estimates by 15 and 20 per cent respectively on the basis of rising automotive production and benefits feeding through from restructuring initiatives. However, the broker issued a target price of 180p – below yesterday’s closing price of 210.4p – in the belief 15.8x 2010 EPS is looking [...]
Cadbury dips below Kraft offer price January 7, 2010 CADBURY shares breached the psychologically-important level of Kraft’s hostile bid price for the first time yesterday, as pressure for the US food giant to increase its offer substantially starts to wane. Cadbury’s stock dipped to an intraday low of 767.5p on the London Stock Exchange yesterday, well below the 771p at which Kraft’s cash-and-shares bid [...]
Interest rate kept on hold again by Bank January 7, 2010 THE Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) yesterday froze the interest rate at 0.5 per cent while persevering with quantitative easing until next month. The interest rate has remained unchanged since March after the MPC took drastic action to tackle the global economic crisis. Quantitative easing, aimed at pumping cash into the financial system, [...]
Persimmon in house sales boost January 7, 2010 Housebuilder Persimmon remained cautious over the health of the housing market despite a stronger performance in the second half of 2009. The FTSE 250 group said it completed the sale of 8,796 new homes during 2009, which generated a turnover of around £1.4bn. Almost 5000 of these properties were sold in the second half – [...]