London open: Footsie starts flat
1st Feb 2010 09:07
London's blue chips have opened flat with utilities and airlines the bright spots on bid and recovery talk respectively. Irish no-frills airline Ryanair's third quarter loss came in lower than expected and it upped its profit estimate for the full year as new routes meant yields fall by less than
Read moreEasyjet appoints Kennedy as finance director
29th Jan 2010 07:54
No-frills airline Easyjet has found a replacement for former finance director Jeff Carr after almost eight months of searching. Chris Kennedy will take over as Group Finance Director in the Summer. He joins from EMI Music where he was Chief Financial Officer. Mark Adams, interim chief financial of
Read moreLondon close: Banks and miners drag Footsie lower
21st Jan 2010 16:30
Leading UK shares lurched lower in the afternoon as US shares weakened and investors waited nervously for President Obama's new bank reforms. The US President's proposals prohibit commercial banks from owning or investing in hedge funds or owning, investing or advising private equity funds, while a
Read moreFTSE 250 movers: Enterprise Inns up by a quarter
21st Jan 2010 14:48
Trading updates provided much of the impetus for the FTSE 250 index, up 0.5% today, led by a stunning performance by Enterprise Inns. Pubs group Enterprise Inns is leading a pub sector rally on a statement that Christmas business was strong, with a deterioration in business beginning to slow The s
Read moreLondon afternoon: Banks face 'tsunami' of pressure
21st Jan 2010 14:44
Leading shares traded sideways over the lunchtime session, albeit with a small dip at 1:30pm when the US market opened a tad lower. Banks and miners are impeding Footsie's progress, with the latter still friendless on concerns about demand from China. Pundits are predicting that the Chinese authori
Read moreLondon midday: Footsie ahead after mixed morning
21st Jan 2010 12:01
Footsie can't make up its mind this morning and after dropping into the red after miners gave up early gains the index is making good progress again. Xstrata, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Fresnillo, Kazakhmys and Vedanta Resources remain the main blue chip fallers on concerns about demand from China.
Read moreEasyJet revenue rise to offset weather losses
21st Jan 2010 07:26
EasyJet increased total revenue per seat by a bigger than expected 4.2% in its first quarter as 11m people flew with the budget airline, which says higher revenue will cancel any losses suffered during Britain's big freeze. Total revenue for the three months to 31 December was up 10.5% to £607.5m,
Read moreEasyJet's Dunne takes Game role
14th Jan 2010 16:16
PC and video games seller Game Group has appointed easyJet's chief commercial officer to the board in an effort to get the business back on track. Dana Dunne, 46, formerly chief executive of AOL Europe, will replace Jean-Paul Giraud, who has completed two terms of office and six years as a non -exe
Read moreeasyJet flies 3.4m passengers in December
6th Jan 2010 07:25
Airline easyJet flew 9.3% more passengers in December than the same month a year before. Passenger numbers increased to just under 3.4m from 3.1m in December 2008 and easyJet said the load factor, which measures how well planes are filled, increased to 85.4% from 82.3%. Over the past twelve month
Read moreLondon close: Dull day for blue chips
30th Dec 2009 16:44
Footsie closed near its low for the day after banks and miners turned down on very low volumes ahead of a short day's trading tomorrow. A flat start on Wall Street didn't help, but it was Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Standard Chartered that led the the banks down while miners Fresnillo, Rio
Read moreLondon midday: Stocks slip lower
30th Dec 2009 11:43
Tops stocks are lower with two of the bigger sectors of the market weighing. Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Standard Chartered are down amongst the banks while miners Fresnillo, Rio Tinto, Lonmin and Anglo American also fall. Petrofac, the oil services firm, is outperforming after news of
Read moreAirline stocks down on Japan Airlines fears
30th Dec 2009 11:11
Airline stocks are lower on industry fears that Japan Airlines, which slid another 24% today, could go into bankruptcy as part of a bailout plan. Local reports suggested Japan Airlines could be put through bankruptcy as part of the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan (ETIC)
Read moreLondon close: Afternoon rally fizzles out
9th Dec 2009 17:13
The Chancellor's pre-Budget Report speech had little effect on UK equities, with much of its content widely expected while others subscribed to the view espoused by the Shadow Chancellor that it was more of a 'pre-election report' than a pre-Budget report. As expected, banks that pay excessive bonu
Read moreLondon afternoon: Cautious response to Pre-Budget
9th Dec 2009 14:27
London's blue chips have reacted cautiously to the chancellor's pre-Budget speech even though the big numbers were better than feared. The government's borrowing forecast for this year came in ahead of market predictions with a slight upward revison to £178bn, while Alistair Darling stuck to his fo
Read moreLondon midday: Shares hold steady
9th Dec 2009 12:06
With less than half an hour to go before the Chancellor's pre-Budget Report speech, leading equities are back to square one, as investors wait to see what the Chancellor has in store. Speculation is he'll announce the biggest squeeze in public spending for a generation, with only schools, hospital
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