Fall in love with lava in wild and woolly Iceland July 25, 2010 THIS year Iceland became infamous for the deeply inconvenient glacial eruption of “that” volcano – Eyjafjallajökull (pronounced “AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh”). Its extraordinary qualities as a country were overshadowed by the chaos of grounded planes. Yet it is starkly beautiful and untamed, overflowing with adventure, history and plenty of volcanic action (brilliant to watch when it doesn’t spoil [...]
Osborne refuses to back EU levy May 26, 2010 POLITICAL EDITOR GEORGE Osborne embarked on a collision course with Brussels yesterday, after he refused to back the creation of a fund to pay for the winding down of failed banks. EU internal market commissioner Michel Barnier said member states should use the proceeds from a new bank levy to fund the “orderly failure” of [...]
Q&A: VOTING SYSTEMS May 9, 2010 Q. HOW DOES THE FIRST-PAST-THE-POST SYSTEM WORK? A. The candidate who gets the most votes in their constituency is elected as MP. If one party has an overall majority of MPs – more than the others put together – it forms the government. Q. WHY DO THE LIB DEMS WANT TO SCRAP FPTP? A. They [...]
Turquoise set to trade US equities in European time April 14, 2010 THE London Stock Exchange yesterday unveiled ambitious plans to turn its Turquoise platform into the first European multilateral trading facility (MTF) to trade US equities during the European working day. Turquoise, which is 51 per cent owned by the exchange and the rest by twelve investment banks, will offer dollar trading in 175 of the [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS May 12, 2010 LEVERAGE YOUR RETURNS Seven new leveraged ETFs were launched by db x-trackers this week. Three of the ETFs will track daily leveraged short indices, while four will track leveraged long indices. The three short ETFs provide two times daily inverse exposure to leading G7 stock markets including Germany’s Dax, the Euro STOXX 50 and the [...]
Don’t forget an ETF’s dividend April 28, 2010 WITH earnings season once again upon us, investors are turning their minds towards the possibility that their share holdings will pay them at least some dividend income. Although figures earlier this week from Capita Registrars showed that British firms paid out 2.5 per cent less in dividends in the first quarter than the same period [...]
ITV cheers as 19m tune in to X-Factor grand final December 14, 2009 MORE than 19m viewers tuned in to watch Joe McElderry win the X-Factor on Sunday night, the biggest ever audience for ITV 1’s flagship talent show. In a rare piece of good news for the struggling commercial broadcaster, overnight figures yesterday showed that the two-hour show averaged 15.5m viewers, giving it a 53 per cent [...]
Say hello to the new lifestyle SUV April 13, 2010 ITS predecessor was undoubtedly ugly even for a 4×4, but there is no doubt about it: the first, most obvious element of the new Kia Sorento is how attractive it is. It’s one of the first Kia cars to be have been styled German design boss Peter Schreyer – the man who penned the Audi [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 22, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES GOLDMAN ROLE IN LLOYDS DEAL IN SPOTLIGHT Goldman Sachs was both an underwriter and an investor in Lloyds Banking Group’s vast refinancing deal late last year, the FT has learned, highlighting the potential conflicts of interest at the heart of the investment bank’s business model. According to four people involved in the capital [...]
Smiths boosts sales by 12pc March 24, 2010 SMITHS Group, the technology firm, reported a 12 per cent increase in first-half profits as margins improved to a 10-year high thanks to cost cuts. Smiths, whose products range from airport x-ray scanners to medical equipment, posted headline operating profit for the six months to the end of January of £207m on sales down one [...]