US lawmakers review high frequency trading networks September 20, 2012 US SENATORS launched a probe into high frequency trading laws yesterday following the botched Facebook offering in May and the near collapse of US broker Knight Capital last month. Influential lawmaker senator Jack Reed, who leads the Senate Banking subcommittee on securities, said market problems related to HFT programmes needed to be reviewed. “These failures [...]
Best of the Brokers September 20, 2012 RANK GROUP Peel Hunt’s Nick Batram has reiterated his “Buy” recommendation on leisure firm Rank Group and upped his target price to 206p. He says the firm has “evolved from a disparate leisure conglomerate” to be “a focused, fully regulated, gaming group with a high quality management”. Batram believes there is a 50 per cent [...]
Dow Jones hits five-year high in light trading September 11, 2012 THE DOW Jones Industrial Average closed at the highest level in nearly five years yesterday in a lightly traded session before key decisions in Germany and the United States that could give markets a further boost. Energy, industrial and financial firms led the advance. Contributing to gains by the Dow, shares of IBM rose 1.15 [...]
Glencore confident its £34bn bid can win over Xstrata shareholders September 9, 2012 SENIOR figures at Glencore, the international trading house, were growing increasingly confident last night they could win the backing of a majority of Xstrata shareholders for their new £34bn takeover plans despite the opposition of a couple of vocal institutional holders. Detailed proposals for the takeover are expected to be revealed to the market as [...]
A new approach to the traditional legal model September 9, 2012 THINK of a sector ripe for an entrepreneur, and law is probably not top of your list. It’s highly competitive – there were 10,202 private practice firms operating in 2011, according to the Law Society – and a complex set of regulations makes applying new business models highly technical. How also to combine the character [...]
Maybe it’s because you’re a Londoner: The capital is optimistic about prices September 9, 2012 Take a step back before deciding if your glass is half full or empty IT IS often hard to move for the number of property analysts discussing price movements in the housing market. But what do UK households think? The Knight Frank/Markit House Price Sentiment index sets out to answer that question. Every month, we [...]
Obituary: Sir Andrew Crockett September 4, 2012 Sir Andrew Crockett, the distinguished central banker and former general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, died yesterday at his home in California. He was 69. Crockett led the BIS between 1994 and 2003, at a time when closer monetary union between European states and the creation of the European Monetary Institute, the European [...]
A week to save Glenstrata deal September 2, 2012 GLENCORE’S merger with Xstrata looks set to collapse this week after seven months of wrangling – unless the firms can reach a compromise with Qatar and other large shareholders over the terms of the deal. Xstrata investors are expected to vote against the £45bn tie-in at a meeting in the Swiss town of Zug on Friday [...]
Foreign buyers drive boom for London houses September 2, 2012 THE LONDON housing market is in a booming recovery, defying global downturn and an unconvincing overall climate for UK housing, according to a report released by Knight Frank today. Prime central London prices are 49 per cent up since March 2009, when the market bottomed out following the financial crisis, and already 14 per cent [...]
JJB shares dive as it looks for a white knight August 30, 2012 SEVERAL bidders have expressed interest in taking control of crisis-hit retailer JJB Sports, which was forced to put itself up for sale yesterday after failing to secure fresh funding from investors. The company, which has 180 stores and employs 4,000 people, has been locked in discussions with suppliers and investors in recents months in a [...]