Sunday newspaper round-up: BP, Sainsbury, Premier Foods
7th Dec 2014 17:59
BP will shed middle managers and put projects on hold as it deals with the falling price of oil, the Sunday Times reported. Finance Director Brian Gilvary told the paper headcounts were falling across all operations and that it would cut the estimated price of oil it uses for budgeting. Gilvary said
Read moreSector movers: UK banking stocks rebound after strong US jobs report
5th Dec 2014 14:37
UK banking stocks were on the rise on Friday, bouncing back after taking a hit earlier in the week following the Autumn Statement, with market sentiment helped by a much better-than-expected US jobs report. Global stock markets jumped after the US Labor Department revealed that monthly non-farm payr
Read moreThursday broker round-up
4th Dec 2014 08:46
Aberdeen: Charles Stanley downgrades to 'hold'. Afren: Canaccord reduces target price from 115p to 65p, while staying with its 'speculative buy' recommendation. Amino Technologies: Northland moves target price from 120p to 130p and retains a 'buy' recommendation. Belgravium Technologies: WH Irelan
Read moreMitie extends facilities management deal with Lloyds Banking Group
2nd Dec 2014 07:47
Support services group Mitie has extended a five-year deal of undisclosed value with Lloyds Banking Group for another eight years. Mitie said the extended deal, which began in 2012 and will now stretch to the end of 2022, will allow it to continue to manage the bank's entire UK branch and office est
Read moreThursday broker round-up
27th Nov 2014 10:15
Amlin: Numis upgrades to 'buy' with a target price of 535p. Amerisur Resources: PeelHunt lowers target price from 58p to 50p and reiterates a 'hold' recommendation. Associated British Foods: Citi raises target price from 3100p to 3700p and maintains its 'buy' recommendation. Avingtrans: FinnCap up
Read moreLondon open: UK markets pause at two-month high, but Petrofac plummets
24th Nov 2014 08:24
UK stocks opened broadly flat on Monday with markets pausing for breath after hitting a two-month high last week. The FTSE 100 was trading down just 0.04% at 6,748 in early deals, with oilfield services group Petrofac providing a drag after a profit warning. The index finished Friday at 6,750.76, a
Read moreSavoy sales and profits drop nearly 3%
23rd Nov 2014 17:05
The Savoy hotel in London saw sales and profits plummet last year by almost 3% to £58.5m. Operating profits also fell by a quarter to £6.1m according to the company results covering the year to last December, as reported by the Sunday Times. Katara Hospitality purchased 50% of the Savoy from Lloyds
Read moreCo-operative Bank ends cash machine deal with Co-op Group
21st Nov 2014 11:21
The Co-operative Bank is ending a deal to supply cash machines to Co-op supermarkets after the Co-operative Group sold its cash-in-transit business to Cardtronics. The bank, which runs about 2,000 machines in Co-op supermarkets, will get £8.2m for the rest of the contract which was due to last un
Read moreThursday newspaper round-up: Federal Reserve, Lloyds, RBS...
19th Nov 2014 18:27
Minutes from the Federal Reserve's October meeting showed that it was an "easy decision" by policymakers to end quantitative easing, writes the Financial Times. The paper says that minutes showed "little debate or dissent" over the move and underlines a more hawkish stance among the committee.
Read moreLloyds to hand back pay to 10,000 employees who were refused a pay rise
18th Nov 2014 09:48
Lloyds Banking Group is set to give hundreds of pounds each back to almost 10,000 current and former employees, who were refused a pay rise. The staff will receive the payments after a long-running dispute between the lender and the LTU union over contracts that staff were asked to sign after the re
Read moreCMA launches enquiry into current accounts and SME banking
6th Nov 2014 08:04
The UK competition authority has launched an "in-depth market investigation" into both the personal current account and small business retail banking sectors, which could help 'challenger banks' to grow. Having in July said it was looking at whether to probe the sector, the Competition and Markets A
Read moreNew leverage ratios 'clear the overhang' for UK banks, says JPMorgan
3rd Nov 2014 10:37
JPMorgan Cazenove has welcomed the new leverage-ratio rules from the Financial Policy Committee (FPC), saying that the outcome for UK banks was better than the market had expected. Analysts reiterated their 'overweight' positions on Lloyds and Barclays, but kept 'neutral' ratings for RBS, HSBC and S
Read moreSector movers: Banking stocks surge on leverage ratio rules, RBS results
31st Oct 2014 15:02
Banking stocks, already bolstered by stronger-than-expected quarterly results from RBS, received another big lift on Friday afternoon as the Bank of England unveiled softer-than-expected requirements for leverage ratios. The leverage ratio, a key gauge of a bank's ability to cushion itself against l
Read moreLondon close: Markets stabilise ahead of Fed meeting
28th Oct 2014 16:35
UK stocks ended Tuesday's session on an upbeat note thanks to a strong performance by the mining sector and a level of stability not seen on markets for several weeks. The FTSE rose early on, dipped around 10:30, but recovered to deliver a steady performance throughout the afternoon, ultimately endi
Read moreFTSE 100 movers: StanChart slides after third-quarter results disappoint
28th Oct 2014 14:46
Shares in banking group Standard Chartered dropped after the company reported a 16% decline in operating profit in the third quarter and said that full-year earnings would be lower than last year. Shares in banking counterpart Standard Chartered dropped after the company reported a 16% decline in op
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