Business leaders must speak up in promoting a culture of capitalism June 12, 2012 MY 33 years at Tesco, 14 of them as its chief executive, left me in no doubt that people hold one of two views of the world: there are those who believe in trusting people, markets and competition, and those who put their faith in government, in all its various guises. Life being what it [...]
Libor scandal drags FTSE 100 into the red as banking stocks plunge June 28, 2012 BANKING shares dragged Britain’s FTSE 100 into negative territory yesterday, battered by concerns over the financial impact of an investigation into the fixing of interbank lending rates that has already engulfed Barclays. Barclays slumped 15.5 per cent in its worst daily fall since 2009, with four times the usual number of shares traded in London. [...]
Transport and schools are key to valuations May 20, 2012 TRYING to predict where London’s house prices will go as a whole is a fools errand. The house price earnings ratio suggests property remains overvalued, but the influx of foreign cash combined with inflexible planning restrictions could see prices continue to rise. It’s easier – and more fruitful – to weigh up different areas. THE [...]
WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 25, 2012 Edison Investment Research The investment research firm has made three appointments to its London team. Tom Carless joins as finance and operations director from 7city, a specialist financial training firm. He spent five years as finance director at Ovum. Additionally, Will Forbes and Zsolt Mester join Edison’s team of analysts, from Arc Asset Management and [...]
London leads jump in house prices as prime properties soar April 26, 2012 ASKING prices rose across the country at the start of 2012, new data revealed yesterday, with prices in London soaring and sales of multi-million pound homes rising. Asking prices rose an average of £3,104 or 1.8 per cent in the first quarter, hitting £221,387 according to findaproperty.com. London experienced the biggest rise, at 5.4 per [...]
Short-termism is bad – but so is excessive long-termism July 23, 2012 THERE are many excellent suggestions in John Kay’s review on the future of the UK equity markets. It makes sense for asset managers to be transparent about their costs, for an investors’ forum to be set up to coordinate collective action and for there to be a push to align incentives and create a culture [...]
Is Mervyn King justified in saying that he was powerless to stop the financial crisis? May 3, 2012 YES Bill Blain The financial lynch-mob seems determined to bury Mervyn King. It’s easy to blame a lame duck. Even if Northern Rock had been more aggressively addressed, would that have left the UK banking system intact? No. That leaves the charge he failed to rein in banks before they nearly sank themselves. But from [...]
Five weird and wonderful things to get trading November 14, 2011 1 The Vix index The Vix, also known as the fear index, allows traders to bet on the expected volatility of the stock market in the next 30 days. Mike van Dulken, the head of research at Accendo Markets, says: “It’s great if you’re long stocks or commodities. It’s a great hedge.” 2 Lumber Trading [...]
Mortgage approvals rise May 30, 2012 UK mortgage approvals for house purchase and mortgage lending were at their highest since January last month, but Britons repaid their credit card bills at the fastest rate in more than five years, Bank data showed on Wednesday. The central bank said mortgage approvals numbered 51,823 in April, up from 51,067 in March. Analysts had [...]
OSBORNE: GREXIT MAY BE NEEDED TO RESCUE EURO June 12, 2012 CHANCELLOR George Osborne has suggested that Greece may have to crash out of the euro for German voters to be convinced of the need to save the single currency. At a gathering of business leaders in London yesterday, an unusually blunt Osborne risked provoking anger in Berlin by hinting that a so-called Grexit could persuade [...]