Economic shocks sent FTSE back below the 6,000 mark June 1, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index dropped back yesterday as below-par US economic pointers and weak UK manufacturing and housing data intensified investor concerns about the strength of the global economy. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 61.38 points, or one per cent, at 5,928.61, reversing sharply in the afternoon after briefly pushing back [...]
TRUST IS MOVING FORWARD FOR ASSET BACKED SECURITIES June 1, 2011 FOLLOWING the onset of the financial crisis in 2008 – and the resulting loss of confidence in the performance of Asset Backed Securities (ABS) – distressed or forced sales led to depressed valuations. Yet the assets themselves suffered few actual defaults – in fact mostly performing as expected. It was the forced selling, or the [...]
Banks help FTSE to end May on a high but fear still reigns May 31, 2011 BANKS and energy stocks, buoyed by hopes of a second bailout for Greece, helped Britain’s FTSE 100 higher yesterday, but traders remained concerned about buying momentum in the short-term. “Uncertainty for the near term outlook still remains bearish until the markets can pick up positive momentum and clear hurdles to give the bulls a chance [...]
Time to celebrate Tax Freedom Day May 31, 2011 WELCOME back to the office: today is the first working day you actually get to keep the money you earn, rather than hand it all over to the state to pay for public spending. It’s Tax Freedom Day – a date which keeps moving later into the year as taxes keep going up. You may [...]
Nationwide grows despite tough market May 25, 2011 NATIONWIDE Building Society gained market share and grew underlying profits by almost a third in the past year despite ongoing housing market stagnation, it said yesterday. Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, turned a £276m underlying profit in the year to April, up from £212m in April 2010, against a backdrop of low growth in [...]
GE Capital in £3bn sell-off May 25, 2011 GE CAPITAL is selling its A$5bn (£3.2bn) Australia and New Zealand mortgages books to Pepper Homeloans as concerns rise over a softening of the Australian housing market and the rising cost of funds. GE Capital, which shed part of its Australian home loans portfolio in 2008 when global conglomerates were restructuring their lending arms, said [...]
DATA ANALYSIS KEY TO THE STRUCTURED FINANCE RECOVERY May 24, 2011 ABSXCHANGE EMEA COMMERCIAL MANAGER STANDARD & POOR’S VALUATION & RISK STRATEGIES IN the past decade, the European structured finance market has undergone radical change. The global economic downturn was the most severe stress test for securitisations in decades. Indeed, the fallout from the collapse of US residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) and collateralised debt obligations [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 23, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES UK BUILDERS SEE VALUE OF ORDERS COLLAPSE The value of work awarded to UK construction companies crashed during the past year, raising concerns that the impact of government spending cuts will be far worse than previously feared. The total value of new work awarded to the UK’s 50 leading construction companies fell by [...]
Mortage lending down 14 per cent in April May 20, 2011 Mortgage lending fell 14 per cent in April compared with the previous month, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The £9.8bn lent was five per cent down on the same month last year. Seasonal factors, including an extra bank holiday, were blamed for the decline. The CML said Easter falling in April had [...]
US mortgage applications rise May 18, 2011 Applications for US home mortgages jumped last week for the third week in a row as falling mortgage rates fuelled demand for refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association said that its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity surged 7.8 per cent at the end of last week, the highest rate since early December.