London close: Stocks taper as sterling, commodity prices lose traction
19th Aug 2016 16:08
(ShareCast News) - UK stocks whimpered to a lower close on Friday as sterling lost traction on renewed Brexit fears and commodity prices headed south. The spectre of the Lisbon Treaty's Article 50 rose once more, following a media report that claimed UK Prime Minister Theresa May was sympathetic to
Read moreFTSE 100 movers: house builders, miners sag as easyJet firms
19th Aug 2016 14:32
(ShareCast News) - London's FTSE 100 tiptoed lower as a string of house builders sagged amid lingering concerns about the UK real estate market, and several miners slumped alongside metals prices. House builders were led lower by Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments, investors exiting t
Read moreCentrica interims hit by customer exodus, low commodity prices, warm weather in US
28th Jul 2016 07:03
(ShareCast News) - Adjusted interim operating profits at energy provider Centrica fell 12% to £853m as the departure of 399,000 customers in search of a better deal combined with extreme warm weather in North America and low commodity prices hit the bottom line hard. Revenue fell 13% to £13.38bn and
Read moreSunday newspaper round-up: Brexit, BT, Lloyds, energy companies
24th Jul 2016 11:22
(ShareCast News) - Plans to allow the UK an exemption from EU rules on freedom of movement for up to seven years while retaining access to the single market are being considered in European capitals as part of a potential deal on Brexit. Senior British and EU sources have confirmed that despite stro
Read moreWednesday broker round-up
20th Jul 2016 09:29
(ShareCast News) - Centrica: Berenberg reiterates buy with a target price of 230p. Rio Tinto: Deutsche Bank maintains buy with a 3160p target. IG Group: RBC reiterates sector perform with a 865p target. SSP: JP Morgan stays at overweight with a 358p target. Vodafone: Deutsche Bank reiterates buy
Read moreBritish Gas offers smart meter users free electricity at weekends
1st Jul 2016 07:56
(ShareCast News) - Centrica-owned British Gas is offering customers with smart meters eight hours of free electricity at the weekend. With one of the company's new Dual Fuel FreeTime tariffs, customers will get free electricity every Saturday or Sunday from 0900 BST to 1700 BST depending on the tari
Read moreBroker tips: Centrica, Travis Perkins, Reckitt Benckiser
30th Jun 2016 17:08
(ShareCast News) - Centrica's 'outperform' rating was left unchanged by RBC Capital Markets on Thursday but the British Gas owner's target price was cut to 250p from 280p. RBC said it advocates Centrica's strategy, announced last July, to put customers at the centre of growth ambitions and to scale
Read moreRBC Capital reiterates 'outperform' rating on Centrica
30th Jun 2016 09:42
(ShareCast News) - Centrica's 'outperform' rating was left unchanged by RBC Capital Markets on Thursday but the British Gas owner's target price was cut to 250p from 280p. RBC said it advocates Centrica's strategy, announced last July, to put customers at the centre of growth ambitions and to scale
Read moreCMA investigation to cost energy industry more than £80m
23rd Jun 2016 09:53
(ShareCast News) - The two year investigation into the UK's big six energy companies by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has imposed an £80m burden on the industry, according to reports. On Friday the CMA is set to publish a 500-page report, and according to The Times, it said the investi
Read moreMonday newspaper round-up: Sterling, City jobs, Williams & Glyn, CMA
20th Jun 2016 07:06
(ShareCast News) - The British pound was powering ahead in Asian morning trading on Monday as the latest opinion polls on Britain's EU referendum showed the two camps running neck and neck. In previous weeks, the campaign for the UK to vote in favour of leaving the EU at its June 23 referendum had s
Read moreSunday newspaper round-up: Brexit bets, airlines, CMA probes, Lloyds lock-up
19th Jun 2016 17:54
(ShareCast News) - Currency traders are betting sterling will slip to an all-time low against the euro of €1.05-1.20 if Britain votes to leave the European Union, eclipsing Black Wednesday in 1992. Currency contracts have recently suggested that investors believe the pound will probably tumble again
Read moreUBS ups Centrica to 'buy' on improving outlook
14th Jun 2016 14:09
(ShareCast News) - UBS upgraded Centrica to 'buy' from 'sell' and lifted the price target to 255p from 185p saying the outlook for the stock has changed. The bank noted Centrica shares are down around 50% from their 2013 peak of 402p, on the back of a downstream CMA inquiry and falling commodities.
Read moreTuesday broker round-up
14th Jun 2016 12:02
(ShareCast News) - Henderson Group: Exane BNP Paribas downgrades to neutral with a target price of 240p. Crest Nicholson: Deutsche Bank keeps at hold with a 542p target. Beazley: UBS stays at neutral with a target price of 376p. Inmarsat: Jefferies keeps at buy with a target of 1245p. Berkeley Gr
Read moreSunday newspaper round-up: AstraZeneca, oil IPOs, M&S, Exova, Tesco
29th May 2016 16:22
(ShareCast News) - AstraZeneca, the UK's second-biggest drug developer, will this week outline its next big hope in the battle against cancer by unveiling new data on a class of treatments, known as DNA damage response (DDR) medicines, at a conference in Chicago. The drugs work by stopping cancerous
Read moreWednesday newspaper share tips: Severn Trent, IGas
25th May 2016 14:13
(ShareCast News) - Shares in Severn Trent are best avoided as investors´ search for yield has driven down the dividend yield on offer, The Times´s Tempus said. As might have been expected, the water supplier achieved bigger-than-expected cost-savings in the first year of the new regulatory period
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