Playing the new uranium boom January 23, 2011 INVESTMENT COMMENT OVER the past six months, the price of uranium has risen more than 60 per cent to $68 an ounce and thanks to increasing demand and tight supply, prices could be headed even higher. There are 442 operating nuclear reactors worldwide but with 60 new ones under construction (a further 156 are in [...]
Strong Christmas drives second profit upgrade in two months at Laura Ashley January 20, 2011 FASHION and homewares retailer Laura Ashley issued its second profit upgrade in two months yesterday. The company said it was confident that full-year profits would be better than City forecasts. It said a strong performance over Christmas and early January means that the results will be “significantly higher than earlier expectations”. Analysts on average were [...]
Inter RAO hunts for investors January 20, 2011 INTER RAO could seek a strategic investor for a 25 per cent stake and may also consider share swaps as it continues to grow, the Russian state-controlled group’s head Boris Kovalchuk said yesterday. The electricity generator and power trader is being used by Russia as a home for billions of dollars of assets as the [...]
BP forecasts emissions rise January 19, 2011 CARBON emissions will continue to rise over the next 20 years, with measures to reduce climate change outstripped by increased energy demand from emerging economies, according to analysis by BP. The oil major predicted yesterday that global demand for fuel is likely to grow by nearly 40 per cent by 2030, with 93 per cent [...]
Europe to share audit info globally January 19, 2011 MICHEL Barnier, the EU markets commissioner, stepped up efforts yesterday to extend scrutiny of auditors beyond the borders of the European Union. In a bid to ensure EU states access to more information about the audits done on major companies, the internal market and services commissioner has added ten non-EU states, including China, Switzerland and [...]
BP shares gain despite Abu Dhabi project delay January 18, 2011 BP shares climbed to their highest level in almost eight months yesterday on enthusiasm for its deal with Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft. The rise came in spite of news that a $2.2bn (£1.4bn) joint venture between BP and Masdar to build a hydrogen power plant has been delayed pending approval from the Abu Dhabi [...]
SABMiller boosted by Asia January 18, 2011 BREWING giant SABMiller beat forecasts with a three per cent rise in beer volumes in the last three months of 2010, boosted by growth in Africa and Asia. The London-based brewer of Miller Lite, Peroni and Grolsch said that beer price rises helped boost its quarterly revenue by six per cent. Strong volumes growth in [...]
POLITICIANS ARE DRIVING EURO-DOLLAR January 18, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT THE euro/dollar found itself on a decidedly more shaky ground at the start of this week’s trade after Germany’s Finance Minister stated that the EU’s largest and most important economy had no intention of adding more capital to the EFSF fund. Wolfgang Schauble told German media he does not support [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 17, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CHINA’S LENDING HITS NEW HEIGHTS China has lent more money to other developing countries over the past two years than the World Bank, a stark indication of the scale of Beijing’s economic reach and its drive to secure natural resources. China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank signed loans of at least $110bn [...]
BP shares rise after historic Russian deal January 17, 2011 BP SHARES edged up yesterday in the market’s first chance to react to its $16bn (£10.1bn) deal and share swap with Russia’s state oil firm Rosneft. BP closed up 0.24 per cent at 500.7p, beating an overall decline in the FTSE 100 index, despite a likely dilution of earnings per share through the deal. As [...]