M&S’s board still backs Marc Bolland but its patience will not last forever January 9, 2013 THIS was no ordinary trading statement. If Marc Bolland, the Marks & Spencer chief executive, had sold an item from his womenswear ranges last autumn every time the retailer’s advertising slogan had been parroted back at him, he’d have wiped the floor with the rest of the high street. Last night’s hastily-released quarterly trading update [...]
Best of the Brokers September 17, 2012 RBS Investec has cut the bank from “hold” to “sell” with a price target of 245p. The broker believes RBS’s return on equity is too weak to prop up its current share price. ADMIRAL Espirito Santo has lowered its rating to “sell” with a fair value price of 900p. The broker thinks the insurer is [...]
Advisers Rob Ritchie September 12, 2012 GOLDMAN SACHS FOR its $2bn bond issue, AstraZeneca appointed four leading Wall Street firms to underwrite the deal and help bring the bonds to the market: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, HSBC Securities and JP Morgan Securities. Leading for Goldman Sachs on the offering was its head of European debt capital markets Rob Ritchie. Ritchie has [...]
Advisers Rob Ritchie September 12, 2012 GOLDMAN SACHS FOR its $2bn bond issue, AstraZeneca appointed four leading Wall Street firms to underwrite the deal and help bring the bonds to the market: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, HSBC Securities and JP Morgan Securities. Leading for Goldman Sachs on the offering was its head of European debt capital markets Rob Ritchie. Ritchie has [...]
Who’s switching jobs November 8, 2012 Houlihan Lokey Sascha Kroissenbrunner has been appointed director in the investment bank’s industrials group. He joins from UniCredit Group in Vienna, where he was managing director and head of the general industrials group for central and eastern Europe. He has also held senior positions at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London and Frankfurt. State [...]
UK set to celebrate the official end of the recession after Games boost October 21, 2012 THE UK is this week expected to officially exit recession, with news from the Office of National Statistics set to confirm the double dip is over. The ONS will publish its first estimate of third quarter GDP, with analysts predicting impressive growth, due in part to the Olympics. Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight, said: [...]
The markets don’t sleep during the festive period December 17, 2012 OVER the Christmas period, equity markets are often seen as offering slim pickings for spread bet and contract for difference traders. Granted, there’s the prospect of a Santa rally, but otherwise the FTSE-100 index tends to end up trading in tight ranges as volatility ebbs away. Underlying volumes are low, traders generally aren’t at their [...]
FTSE flat as poor corporate results overshadow positive news on GDP October 25, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index was fractionally higher yesterday as gains by banks on strong UK GDP figures were countered by some mixed corporate earnings. Banks added 0.8 per cent on news that Britain pulled out of recession in the third quarter, with its strongest quarterly economic growth in five years, boosting expectations that lending conditions [...]
FTSE 100 up as Britain leaves recession October 25, 2012 The blue chip index was up in early trading, as the economy expanded by one per cent in the three months to September, the strongest quarterly growth in five years. Companies announcing results also helped to buoy the FTSE 100, such as consumer giant Unilever, which added 3.36 per cent as it announced rising sales. [...]
Unilever warns of tough 2012 February 2, 2012 Consumer goods giant Unilever warned of a difficult 2012 due to a tough economic outlook after broadly matching 2011 sales forecasts after it hiked prices and saw strong emerging market growth. The Anglo-Dutch maker of brands like Hellmann’s, Knorr and Dove pushed up prices in the final three months of 2011 to offset higher commodity [...]