Now the London party is over, housebuilders must help tidy up January 13, 2017 Barratt Homes said yesterday it is struggling in London – an admission that came as no surprise. The housebuilder is one of several to have jumped on the London bandwagon in the first half of this decade, merrily buying up land all over the capital as house prices whooshed upwards. But its first half results, [...]
Here’s when the next Tube strike is likely to be January 12, 2017 The next Tube strike will take place on 6 February unless a dispute with Transport for London (TfL) can be resolved, the RMT union has said. The PA reported today that the RMT had warned industrial action will be "escalated" if TfL cannot resolve the dispute. The threat came days after Tube workers brought the [...]
Snow no! London airports have cancelled dozens of flights January 12, 2017 As snow and ice loomed over London, airports across the capital have cancelled dozens of flights. Heathrow and Gatwick airports both said some flights were cancelled in advance of the snow, which is set to begin at five o'clock tonight. Meanwhile, Luton and City airports both said they will keep travellers up to date. Heathrow [...]
The person with the City’s least stressful job might be sitting next to you January 12, 2017 If your return to work this January has felt like a slog, it may be time to get into compliance, for a new ranking of the world's most stressful job has put compliance officers right at the bottom. Research by US jobsite CareerCast looked at 11 factors that add to stress, including deadlines, hazards, public scrutiny, physical [...]
Super first half for Supergroup as weak pound pushes up sales January 12, 2017 Supergroup reported a strong performance in its first half, thanks to the weak pound. The figures Supergroup, the owner of anorak purveyor Superdry, said revenues jumped 31.1 per cent to £334m in the six months to the end of October, pushed up by a 12.8 per cent rise in like-for-like sales, while online made up 21.6 per cent of total revenue, up from 19.2 per [...]
Asos sales jumped during a record Christmas trading period January 12, 2017 Asos remains decidedly en vogue, after it hiked guidance following a record Christmas trading period. The figures It's all coming up roses for Asos (in this case, roses embroidered down the side of a button-down denim mini). The online retailer reported a 36 per cent jump in retail sales to £605.7m in the four months to the end of December, [...]
About-turn for Mothercare as it reaps the rewards of the weak pound January 12, 2017 What a difference a couple of months makes. Having warned of "stalling" sales in November, today Mothercare was cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. The figures UK like-for-like sales rose one per cent in the 13 weeks to 7 January, pushed up by 5.5 per cent online sales growth. That was indicative of Mothercare's shift in priorities – with online now making up 40 [...]
Pharma shares drop like a stone seconds into Donald Trump’s news conference January 11, 2017 Shares in the US' largest pharmaceutical companies fell sharply as Donald Trump took them to task in his first news conference since his electoral acceptance speech. In the UK, GSK fell 0.8 per cent to 1,581.5p, while AstraZeneca fell 1.7 per cent to 4,579p and Hikma fell 1.4 per cent to 1,900p after Trump said he will force [...]
The price of Bitcoin has just fallen off a cliff after China said it is “monitoring” exchanges January 11, 2017 The price of bitcoin fell sharply today, after it emerged China's central bank is moving to "closely monitor" local bitcoin exchange businesses. The cryptocurrency fell as low as $784.56 in lunchtime trading, before settling just above $800, 10.7 per cent down. The People's Bank of China published a statement this morning saying it had formed a joint [...]
Lloyds, TSB and Halifax’s online banking systems are back after an outage January 11, 2017 Twitter was a-ring with annoyed Lloyds, Halifax and TSB customers this afternoon, after the online banking systems of all three went down. Customers said they were unable to access their accounts either online or in their app. Although TSB is no longer owned by Lloyds Banking Group, its systems were also affected. @AskLloydsBank being down [...]