Budget goods boost Asda’s market share August 13, 2009 WAL-MART owned Asda yesterday said it was stealing market share from other supermarkets as customers shopped around for low prices during the downturn. Asda said over three months to 31 July it had grown its market share of the grocery sector to 17 per cent, up from 16.7 per cent the quarter before. Tesco continues [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 2, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES HGCAPITAL SAYS GOLDSHIELD UNDERSTATED PROFITS FOR YEARS Goldshield Group understated its profits by several million pounds over a number of years, according HgCapital, the private equity group that backed a £179m management buy-out of the drugmaker last year. HEDGE FUNDS RAISE BETS AGAINST EURO Hedge funds are raising their bets against the euro [...]
THE TIPSTER January 31, 2010 FRIDAY’S upbeat house price data from the Nationwide was well received by home owners, but it might only last for the short-term. Whether the upward trend in home values can be sustained for any length of time is clearly open to debate. The prospect of rising interest rates threatens to squash demand as mortgage repayments [...]
THE TIPSTER January 10, 2010 THERE’S been no shortage of news regarding the increased demand for natural gas by UK consumers as the cold snap continues to grip the country. As a result, BG Group (formerly British Gas) has got the year off to a cracking start, outperforming the FTSE-100 by over 100 per cent. But the cold (hopefully) won’t [...]
ECONOMIC DIARY December 20, 2009 IN a quiet and short week, the big news on the agenda will be the revisions – if any – to third quarter GDP figures for the UK and the US on Tuesday. The UK third quarter data will be released on Tuesday at 9.30am. Despite an upward revision to -0.4 per cent from -0.6 [...]
Inchcape upbeat on 2009 but cautious on next year December 17, 2009 CAR dealer Inchcape said yesterday it expected to end 2009 slightly ahead of its view, as it benefitted from strong demand for new cars in the UK during the second half of the year, but remained cautious about 2010. The group, which sells and distributes cars for manufacturers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Toyota in [...]
ECONOMIC DIARY December 6, 2009 Monday 7 DecemberUSUnited States Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is set to speak at Economic Club of Washington lunch (5pm)October consumer credit (8pm)New York Fed president William Dudley speaks at Columbia UniversityJapanNovember bank lending (11.50pm)November money stock (11.50pm) Tuesday 8 DecemberUKBRC November retail sales monitor (12am)Manpower employment outlook for Q1 (12am)October industrial production (9.30am)October manufacturing [...]
Comet festive sales are a worry for owner Kesa January 20, 2010 COMET dragged down sales at parent company Kesa as the electrical store failed to beat off its rivals over Christmas. Like-for-like sales dropped by 3.9 per cent at Comet between 1 November and 8 January, the company revealed yesterday. However, Kesa’s overall sales fall was limited to 0.3 per cent after growth in its international [...]
Seasonal trends can hurt FTSE100 January 3, 2010 IT’S worth remembering that seasonal trends can cause some unexpected moves in the financial markets. So far this decade January has been a bad month for the equity markets. The FTSE 100 has declined seven times out of the last 10 Januarys and lost on average more than 5 per cent during this seasonal trend. [...]
ECONOMIC DIARY November 29, 2009 Monday 30 NovemberUK: November GfK Consumer Confidence (12am)November Hometrack Housing Survey (12am)CBI Service Sector Survey (12am)October Net Consumer Credit (9.30am)October Net Lending Secured on Dwellings (9.30am)October Mortgage Approvals (9.30am)October Final M4 Money Supply (9.30am)Eurozone: November CPI Estimate (10am)US:November Chicago PMI (2.45pm) Tuesday 1 DecemberUK:November PMI Manufacturing (9.30am)November Nationwide House Prices (7am)Eurozone:November PMI Manufacturing (9am)October Unemployment [...]