Trade body says hardcore of ‘repeat offenders’ are failing to listen to investor views December 4, 2018 The trade body for UK investment managers has written to 32 companies on the Ftse-all share to register concern after they faced significant shareholder dissent for the last two years. The Investment Association (IA) said it was concerned that these companies had appeared on the public register, which tracks significant shareholder dissent, for the same [...]
Royal Mail, Kier Group and Thomas Cook set to lose out in tomorrow’s FTSE reshuffle, as insurer Hiscox looks set to join the big league December 4, 2018 Royal Mail will need a miracle to avoid relegation from the FTSE 100 Index tomorrow, as insurer Hiscox looks ready to step into its place as a blue chip firm. The winners and losers of the last FTSE reshuffle of the year are to be announced tomorrow afternoon, with Thomas Cook, Kier Group and the [...]
Trump tweets after Xi Jinping meeting give global stock markets boost December 3, 2018 Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have agreed a 90-day respite from from the two countries’ spat over trade tariffs, causing Wall Street to jump as it opened and giving global stock markets a shot in the arm overnight. In customary fashion, Trump took to Twitter after a two-and-a-half hour dinner between the Chinese and US [...]
The “79 per cent chance” the Santa Rally is real December 3, 2018 | City Talk Stock markets have risen in 79 per cent of Decembers over the last three decades adding some substance to the myth of the “Santa Rally”, Schroders research has found. The “Santa Rally” is a supposed effect of the Christmas feel-good factor, helping stock markets rise at the end of the year, although many seasoned investors remain [...]
Global markets rally on improved US-China trade relations December 3, 2018 Markets worldwide rallied this morning on the news that China and the US had pulled back from the brink in their escalating trade war. The FTSE 100 was up 145 points on 7,125, the FTSE 250 up 250 points to 18,730 and the FTSE all-share was up 73 points on 3,896. Among the biggest risers [...]
PwC loses FTSE 100 client crown in audit pass-the-parcel December 3, 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the UK’s biggest accountancy firm, has had its crown – holding the highest number of FTSE 100 clients – snatched by rival KPMG. It is the first time PwC has lost its position as the leading auditor of the UK’s top blue-chip firms. KPMG now audits 28 FTSE 100 firms, to PwC’s 27, [...]
Trump cancels new tariffs as China pledges to reduce trade gap December 2, 2018 US president Donald Trump has scrapped plans to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, in an announcement that sees the year-long US-China trade war cool considerably. The White House announced it would hold fire on raising tariffs on $200bn (£156bn) worth of goods from China. They had been scheduled to increase to 25 per cent from 1 [...]
The activist investor revolution has begun November 30, 2018 A year ago, anyone attempting to name a FTSE 100 stock that was likely to chart a double-digit share price rise would have been unlikely to name Whitbread. With a big exposure to the British consumer, the owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inns seemed to have too many chips stacked on the wrong part [...]
Editor’s Notes: Check back in with the forecasters in 2033 November 30, 2018 The Treasury’s Brexit scenarios, released this week, boiled down to a claim – made with pinpoint accuracy – that the Prime Minister’s deal will leave the UK economy 3.9 per cent smaller in 15 years, compared with staying in the EU. In other news, PwC estimates that artificial intelligence will increase UK GDP by 10.3 [...]
Polman bows out of Unilever with a rich legacy, but a tarnished reputation November 29, 2018 When Paul Polman announced his plan to quit as boss of Unilever last autumn, he had plenty of reasons to think he would be leaving the consumer goods giant on a high: he had fought off a £115bn takeover attempt from Kraft Heinz earlier in the year and forged a reputation as a champion of [...]