Last Week in the City: Trade wars begin July 6, 2018 Garry White, chief investment commentator, looks at the market-moving events that have shaped the UK equity markets this week (2 to 6 July 2018). The World Cup is “distracting” for participants in global markets, according to Citigroup. "We find that football is indeed distracting, subtly impacting market depth, traded volumes and execution cost,” the US [...]
British pubs closing at rate of two a day since April business rates hike | City A.M. February 5, 2018 Two pubs a day have shut their doors since last April, according to new research. Some 616 pubs have been demolished or converted to other uses since the change in business rates came into force, real estate adviser Altus Group has said. But the overall rate of decline has slowed since the decade following the [...]
Whether it has peaked or not, we’re playing a waiting game with inflation December 14, 2017 On Tuesday, official data showed Consumer Price Inflation crept up slightly to 3.1 per cent in November. It was enough to oblige the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney to write a letter to the Chancellor, an event not unlike a naughty schoolboy writing a letter of apology to the headmaster. Mr Carney wrote to Philip [...]
Bookies slash the odds on Andrea Leadsom to replace Theresa May as next UK Prime Minister November 3, 2017 Bookies have slashed the odds on the prospect of Andrea Leadsom becoming the next Prime Minister. Leadsom, who ran against Theresa May for the top job after the Brexit vote, has been in the headlines today after it emerged she demanded Michael Fallon leave his role as defence secretary. Read more: Theresa May limps on [...]
Philip Hammond offers hard truths to the Germans January 16, 2017 While much of the weekend’s focus has been on what Theresa May could announce in her big Brexit speech tomorrow, it was her chancellor, Phillip Hammond, who made one of the more interesting interventions of the weekend. In an interview with a German newspaper Hammond poured cold water on the idea that the UK might [...]
Lloyds Bank share sale raises further £0.5bn to repay taxpayer December 13, 2016 The government has sold off another slug of its shares in Lloyds Bank, meaning the state now has an interest of less than seven per cent. More than £17.5bn has been recovered of the £20.3bn forked out by the taxpayer, the Treasury said this morning. The sale follows the previous auction in November that took recoveries to [...]
Remortgaging valuations surge and drive rest of mortgage market as homeowners try to lock in low interest rate deals December 7, 2016 Homeowners scrambling to lock into mortgage deals before a rise in interest rates drove remortgaging valuations to surge almost 25 per cent year-on-year in November. Remortgaging outperformed all other mortgage market valuation activity last month, according to research from Connells Survey & Valuation, rising 4.9 per cent compared to October. Read more: Time to remortgage? [...]
Brexit, Trump and Farage? These are the odds on Philip Hammond’s speech November 23, 2016 Happy Autumn Statement Day! It's that time of year again (even though it is actually winter) when the chancellor sets out his stall for spending, and this year it's newbie Philip Hammond who'll be astutely picking out his tie and carefully choosing the words he uses in his speech. Read more: What to expect when you're expecting the [...]
Travel delays in central London as Kings Cross station is evacuated and closed November 23, 2016 Commuters were facing delays in central London this morning after King's Cross station was evacuated and closed for safety reasons. The station has since been reopened and trains are stopping there again. Transport for London revealed the station had been closed to prevent overcrowding. https://twitter.com/piccadillyline/status/801351227632209920 However, witnesses tweeted that the station had been evacuated due to [...]
The government has sold off more Lloyds shares November 22, 2016 The government has sold off more of its shares in Lloyds Bank bringing taxpayers' holding in the company below eight per cent. A further plan to sell shares to institutional investors was announced by the chancellor Phillip Hammond in October, ditching plans to offload them to retail investors. "Selling our shares in Lloyds Banking Group and [...]