Selfridges to make 100m November 29, 2009 Selfridges, the London luxury department store group, is today expected to unveil profits of £100m in its 100th year as the store is buoyed by a surge of wealthy overseas shoppers taking advantage of the weak pound. The retailer, which also has stores in Manchester and Birmingham’s Bullring centre and plans to open another in [...]
Gold jumps to new heights as dollar dips November 25, 2009 GOLD jumped to another record high yesterday, while the dollar dropped to a 15 month low against a basket of currencies after a batch of US data indicated the economic recovery was strengthening. The data, showing positive trends in the housing and labour markets and in consumer spending, helped lift US and European shares while [...]
Halfords gets a boost from Brits on bikes June 10, 2009 HALFORDS, the car maintenance and bicycle retailer, yesterday reported a 2.4 per cent rise in full-year profits to £92.4m as the demand for bikes and camping equipment surges in the downturn. Finance director Nick Waller said: “The demand for bikes is sustainable, people are using cycling to beat congestion, for economic reasons and increasingly to [...]
Profits turn flaky for Weetabix but sales float higher on Bitesize launch November 11, 2009 CEREAL maker Weetabix saw its post-tax profits slide last year as it took a hit from restructuring costs and redundancy payments. The company, which also owns the Alpen muesli and Ready Brek porridge brands, reported total profits of £75.7m for 2008, down £2.3m year-on-year. The cost of overhauling its operations in Kettering and Corby dragged [...]
Japan offers the contrarian trader a wealth of opportunity July 13, 2009 GIVEN how badly export-oriented Japan has suffered from the financial crisis and the subsequent drop off in global demand, you might think that investing in Japanese equities would be one of the least successful trading strategies around right now. But in fact, a number of analysts have started turning bullish on the Japanese stock index [...]
CITY VIEWS: HOW UPBEAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SIR RICHARD BRANSON’S LATEST FORAY INTO BANKING? October 26, 2009 JULIAN TAVORA CGD“As a consumer, it’s always good to have more options and more competition in the retail banking market. Branson’s name will add respect to the brand, but he is involved with many different things so will need to hire specialist talent to recognise the bank’s potential.” NISHA TAILOR RBC DEXIA“I am upbeat – [...]
UK’s economy ready to grow June 14, 2009 BRITAIN’S economy is stabilising, with the worst of the recent quarterly falls in GDP having passed into history, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will today predict. But the employers’ group warns that it will take until the beginning of next year before there is a return to economic growth. The report is published a [...]
Orange to sell iPhone next week November 2, 2009 ORANGE said yesterday that it will start selling the Apple iPhone from 10 November, ending O2’s exclusive carriage deal in the UK. But there was no sign of the price war that consumers had anticipated, with France Telecom’s Orange setting similar tariffs and contract structures to O2. The network operator will provide the sought-after 3GS [...]
MARK ON THE MARKETS May 31, 2009 THERE will be plenty for the market to mull over this week. Amongst the economic news, we are expecting PMI surveys, consumer confidence and PPI out of the UK; unemployment figures from the eurozone; as well as consumption data-including the Fed’s preferred inflation measure-from the US. On Wednesday we will hear the views of Fed [...]
It will be easy to lose money this year December 17, 2009 ONE of the great paradoxes of 2009 was that economic meltdown went hand in hand with strong gains for many investors. After a disastrous few months when everybody was pricing in the end of civilisation, stock markets bounced back, house prices started to rise again and many traders made vast returns. As I wrote yesterday, [...]