Opinion: Look behind the headlines to the data and London house price falls are nothing to worry about July 10, 2018 “Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.” This refrain from Mark Twain is as true now as it ever was, especially when it comes to assessing what’s going on in the London housing market. Headlines such as “London Falling: House prices in the capital experience lowest growth since financial crisis” might have sent shivers [...]
Smiths Group (LON: SMIN) share price falls after failing engineer expected top line March 23, 2018 Engineer Smiths today disappointed investors with weaker-than-expected half-year sales. Shares slid over eight per cent, making the firm one of London’s biggest listed losers. Revenue fell four per cent on a reported basis to £1.55bn, one per cent lower on an underlying basis. Analysts had penciled in a top line of £1.59bn Operating profit slumped [...]
Lawyers slam SFO disclosure failings for ‘miscarriage of justice’ in Tom Hayes Libor conviction April 27, 2018 The legal team for convicted Libor trader Tom Hayes has slammed the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for a series of disclosure failings they say led to a miscarriage of justice and his wrongful conviction. Hayes’s lawyer Karen Todner has written to parliament’s Justice Committee urging it to probe the SFO as part of an inquiry [...]
Forex markets: British pound (GBPDUSD) reaches highest point since Brexit, US dollar remains steady April 16, 2018 After soaring to a ten-week high last week, sterling has inched to its highest point since the outcome of Britain’s Brexit referendum to trade at $1.43 against the greenback – only the second time it has reached that point since the vote. This follows a particularly strong finish last week, when sterling edged up to [...]
Bank of England’s deputy dove Sir Dave Ramsden says faster rate hikes are coming February 25, 2018 One of the Bank of England’s most dovish rate-setters has decided that signs of firmer wage growth mean interest rates need to rise more quickly, according to comments reported today. Sir Dave Ramsden, the Bank’s deputy governor, said that “relative to where I was, I see the case for rates rising somewhat sooner rather than [...]
Interserve share price dives after being landed with £40m bill from accountants PwC EY and consultants Oliver Wyman FTI Consulting April 30, 2018 Under-fire accountants and consultants are to net almost £40m in fees as troubled outsourcer Interserve pulls itself back from the brink. Big Four bean counters such as PwC and EY as well as management consultants FTI Consulting and Oliver Wyman were paid £13.9m during 2017 with a further £25m to be paid in 2018, it [...]
London Stock Exchange Group’s LCH clearing arm enjoys record year January 8, 2018 The London Stock Exchange (LSE) Group’s LCH clearing arm processed a record volume of derivatives over the course of 2017, ahead of an expansion further into servicing growing Asian markets. The notional value of interest rate derivatives processed by LCH reached over $873 trillion during the course of 2017, according to data to be published [...]
What Brexit: Venture capital investment in UK startups is up and the future “optimistic”, KPMG Venture Pulse Q1 2017 figures show April 11, 2017 Britain has apparently shaken off the Brexit vote, with fresh figures revealing a rise in investment from venture capitalists. It helps ease concerns that leaving the EU will make the UK an unattractive place to invest and potentially torpedo the technology sector. More than $1bn (£804m) was ploughed into startups in the first quarter of [...]
Brexit deal live: UK would vote to remain in EU in a second referendum January 17, 2019 Hello and welcome to our Brexit vote live blog. Stay tuned for reaction to Labour's no confidence vote yesterday, after Theresa May's Brexit deal slumped to a historic defeat in parliament on Tuesday night. Please manually refresh this page for the latest updates What you need to know: The Prime Minister’s deal was defeated by [...]
Shadow MPC: The Bank of England should hold interest rates amid hesitantly positive economic data March 22, 2018 Interest rates are widely expected to be kept at their current 0.5 per cent level today, as the Bank of England (BoE)’s monetary policy committee (MPC) meets to deliver its verdict. In the second MPC rate review of this year, due to be announced at midday, the BoE’s policy makers are likely to credit only [...]