Wall St The Week Ahead: Investors shy of firms with Bric exposure February 2, 2014 INVESTORS may crave a quiet market this coming week to digest the recent volatility in stocks and rehash yesterday’s Super Bowl, but the prospect doesn’t look likely. The catalysts that drove the Dow and the S&P 500 to their worst monthly performances since May 2012 have not gone away. The retreat from emerging markets – [...]
Bottom Line: Stick to spirits and ditch the beer hangover January 30, 2014 BARELY a year into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push to crack down on bribery and corruption, and the effects are already being felt round the world. Earlier this month the country’s government hailed a 13.3 per cent increase in the number of people punished under the new regime last year, but Diageo’s Chinese woes imply [...]
London Report: Diageo’s woes help drag FTSE 100 lower again January 30, 2014 BRITISH blue-chip shares fell for the seventh time in eight days yesterday, led lower by Diageo after the company said weakness in emerging markets was hurting its sales. The FTSE 100 index was down 0.1 per cent, or 5.83 points, at 6,538.45 by the close, nearing its lowest since mid-December. It has suffered in recent [...]
Ericsson results miss expectations as North America fails to deliver January 30, 2014 Swedish communications giant Ericsson has performed below analysts expectations posting a fall in sales and fourth quarter operating profit. Sales in networks also declined by one per cent in the quarter from the same period a year earlier. Sales at Ericsson were 67bn krona (£6.2bn) against a forecast of 69.3bn krona. Ericsson's earnings before interest [...]
Amur Minerals set to benefit from new Russian tax breaks January 29, 2014 AMUR Minerals, the Russian nickel and copper explorer, yesterday said that newly implemented tax breaks would boost its revenues by $100m (£60.4m). The Russian government reduced the mineral resources extraction tax and the profits tax from the start of January, which Aim-listed Amur Minerals said has benefitted their Kun-Manie mine in the south of Russia. [...]
South Africa’s is the third big central bank to hike rates this week. Here’s why January 29, 2014 South African Reserve Bank chief Gill Marcus has given investors a bit of a shock. After Turkey and India saw rate hikes yesterday, South Africa's policymakers have made a similar call. They've hiked their repo rate by 0.5 percentage points to 5.5 per cent. Markets suspected a hike when Marcus announced big upward revisions to [...]
Hannam adds to his top team at Strand January 28, 2014 IAN Hannam, the former JP Morgan banker, has recruited another senior executive to join his thriving independent advisory bank, Strand Partners. Hannam confirmed last night that Giles Fitzpatrick, the former chief executive of Fox-Pitt Kelton, will be joining his team, which includes chief executive Neil Passmore and Tim Hoare. Strand has been advising on a [...]
Vimpelcom slashes its dividend January 28, 2014 Vimpelcom, Russia’s third biggest mobile operator, said it plans to slash its dividend to pay down debt piled up in an aggressive expansion drive, marking an unexpected policy shift that spooked shareholders and sent its shares down 13 per cent. Vimpelcom’s expansion into Africa, Asia and continental Europe left the group with more than $20bn [...]
The grave crises facing Putin’s Russia lay bare its fundamental weaknesses January 28, 2014 CHAOS in Kiev must feel uncomfortably close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian parliament yesterday annulled laws that sought to clear the streets of protesters against Ukraine’s increasingly authoritarian pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine’s prime minister and government have quit, and the country stands perilously on the edge of deeper conflict – prompted initially [...]
Letters to the Editor – 28/01 – Labour tax plans, Small business, Best of Twitter January 27, 2014 Labour tax plans [Re: The Labour party’s war on the better off is dreadful economics, yesterday] Let us not forget the damage that the 50p tax rate would do to the global mobility of top talent. Many of these individuals are “tax equalised” – their net salary is delivered, and the employer meets the tax [...]