Tuesday newspaper round-up: RBS, FCA, British Gas

22nd Sep 2015 05:56

(ShareCast News) - UK Financial Investments, the body charged with managing the state's holdings in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, has been ordered by the Treasury select committee to explain why the government needed to commission a separate report into the sale from Rothschild, despite having an in

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Sunday share tips: Dairy Crest, Cluff Natural Resources, tightening cycle stocks

20th Sep 2015 15:08

(ShareCast News) - Dairy Crest shares are worth buying, said Danny Fortson in the Sunday Times' Inside the City column. Investors are currently awaiting a Competition & Markets Authority decision on 19 October whether to allow Dairy Crest to sell its dairy business, roughly two thirds of group sales

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Macquarie stays long on Barclays, sees possible seismic shift in retail banking

14th Sep 2015 12:40

(ShareCast News) - Barclays was taking the "correct" approach to defending its terrain in the Payments arena against the onslaught of new entrants into the market and was better placed than the more retail-facing lenders to withstand, some analysts believed. Following an investor lunch with Barclayc

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Banks' technology investments are not panacea yet, warns Bernstein

14th Sep 2015 10:18

(ShareCast News) - Bernstein warned investors not to expect the rise of financial technology to enable banks to significantly cull branch numbers in coming years, but that substantial changes to the industry are still likely via 'fintech'. Bernstein, whose current stance on UK banks has Royal Bank o

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Broker tips: StanChart, BP, Tullow Oil

10th Sep 2015 16:24

(ShareCast News) - The largest UK banks face several further operational headwinds which the market may not be fully factoring in yet, analysts believe. Foremost among those is the 2018 implementation of the IFRS9 accounting standard regarding provisions, which will be half again as high as IAS39. T

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Exane BNP lowers targets across UK banks, except RBS

10th Sep 2015 16:12

(ShareCast News) - The largest UK banks face several further operational headwinds which the market may not be fully factoring in yet, analysts believe. Foremost among those is the 2018 implementation of the IFRS9 accounting standard regarding provisions, which will be half again as high as IAS39. T

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Bank surcharge forecasts "vastly understate" pain on sector, says EY

7th Sep 2015 13:30

(ShareCast News) - The banking sector will have to pay out vastly more than expected from George Osborne's new profits surcharge, which was introduced to reduce the pain of the Bank Levy on lenders such as HSBC. When the Chancellor unveiled the new 8% surcharge on bank profits and plans to lower the

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Morgan Stanley turns positive on RBS for first time in six years

26th Aug 2015 14:09

(ShareCast News) - Morgan Stanley upgraded its stance on Royal Bank of Scotland to 'overweight' from 'equalweight' and lifted its price target to 400p from 345p as restructuring enters the final furlong. The bank said this marks the first time in six years that it's turning positive on RBS. MS said

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UK government cuts stake in Lloyds to just under 13%

24th Aug 2015 09:17

(ShareCast News) - The UK government has cut its stake in Lloyds Banking Group to just under 13%, taking the bank another step closer to full privatisation. UK Financial Investments, which is fully-owned by the Treasury, reduced its stake in the bank by a further 1% to 12.97%. This takes the total r

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Broker tips: Lloyds, Weir Group, Fidessa

3rd Aug 2015 13:35

(ShareCast News) - Charles Stanley downgraded Lloyds Banking Group to 'hold' from 'accumulate', citing tax and PPI headwinds. It also said that with the shares trading on a premium rating of 1.6x 30 June 2015 tangible book value, material near-term upside may be limited. However, the brokerage stil

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Charles Stanley downgrades Lloyds; cites PPI headwinds and valuation

3rd Aug 2015 11:33

(ShareCast News) - Charles Stanley downgraded Lloyds Banking Group to 'hold' from 'accumulate', citing tax and PPI headwinds. It also said that with the shares trading on a premium rating of 1.6x 30 June 2015 tangible book value, material near-term upside may be limited. However, the brokerage stil

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UK government cuts stake in Lloyds to just under 14%

3rd Aug 2015 09:35

(ShareCast News) - The UK government has sold more of its shares in Lloyds Banking Group, bringing its stake down to 13.99% from 14.98%. Lloyds said on Monday that the government now owns 9.98bn shares in the bank compared with 10.69bn previously. There was no price disclosed for the share sale, wh

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London close: FTSE finishes on the front foot as investors weigh earnings and data

31st Jul 2015 17:13

(ShareCast News) - The FTSE 100 picked up steam to close on a positive note after a mixed day of corporate reports and economic data. In Europe, German retail sales rose 5.1% in June, beating expectations for a 4% increase. Compared to a month ago, sales dropped 2.3%, ahead of forecasts for a 0.3% g

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Lloyds reportedly targeting acquisitions for first time since bailout

31st Jul 2015 16:19

(ShareCast News) - Lloyds Banking Group is reportedly starting to look at acquisitions for the first time since it required its state bailout. According to a person with knowledge of the matter cited by Bloomberg, the lender is considering buying loan books in areas such as consumer finance and cred

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London midday: FTSE in the red on mixed earnings, data

31st Jul 2015 12:27

(ShareCast News) - The FTSE 100 slipped into the red on the back of a flat session in Asian markets, mixed earnings releases and economic data. Asian stocks were mixed, with Japan's Nikkei 225 index ending higher on upbeat reports on housing starts and construction orders but Shanghai fell on report

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