London midday: Banks and pharmas drag Footsie lower
20th Dec 2011 11:54
London's blue chip index was slightly down at midday, despite a temporary stint in the blue, with heavyweight banking and pharmaceuticals stocks providing a drag. The Footsie nevertheless has been trading within a narrow range, with just 33 points separating the intraday low and high. The European
Read moreRBS to relinquish control of property assets to Blackstone
20th Dec 2011 07:43
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and private equity giant Blackstone Group are set to finalise a deal in which the British bank will relinquish control of 1.4bn pounds (2.17bn US dollars) of distressed property loans to the American group, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday, Reuters report
Read moreLondon close: Banks tumble as Osborne speaks
19th Dec 2011 16:19
The Footsie tanked in late afternoon trade with the government's response to Sir John Vickers banking report weighing heavily on the banking sector. In a debate in the House of Commons, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that lenders should be forced to ring-fence their high street len
Read moreFTSE 100 movers: Banks weighed down by ICB report
19th Dec 2011 14:21
The banks were among the worst performers of the day on Monday as they awaited a the government's response to proposed changes to the sector by the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB). The ICB has recommended that lenders should be forced to ring-fence their High Street lending operations from
Read moreLondon midday: Banks fall, Footsie flat
19th Dec 2011 11:50
The Footsie pared gains and was trading flat by midday with banking stocks providing a drag ahead of the government's response to Sir John Vickers' report into banking. The Bank of England's Quarterly Bulletin revealed that 56% of households surveyed reckoned that income available after tax, insura
Read moreRBS shake-up could put 18,900 jobs at risk
19th Dec 2011 11:29
Royal Bank of Scotland may undertake a restructuring of its Global Banking and Markets (GBM) division, in an operation which would see the unit´s balance sheet rapidly reduced from 450bn pounds to under 200bn pounds. The possibility also exists that it might offload its brokerage unit Hoare Govet
Read moreFTSE 100 Movers: Kazakhmys leads the miners higher
16th Dec 2011 14:14
Kazakhmys leapt into the top spot after investors learnt that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Development Bank Corporation for a $1.5bn loan facility, which is to be used for the development of the major copper project at Aktogay, East Kazakhstan. The facility consists of
Read moreLondon close: Footsie drops 1.8% on Eurozone worries
12th Dec 2011 16:46
London's Footsie finished at its lowest levels of the day after Wall Street bourses opened sharply in the red. The Eurozone crisis appeared to be weighing heavily on investors' minds (as usual) following some downbeat comments from Moody's. The FTSE 100 finished 1.8% down at 5,428, some 101 points o
Read moreFTSE 100 Movers: Miners drag footsie lower
12th Dec 2011 15:07
Kazakhstan-focused miner, Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC), hit the bottom spot on reports that it is said to be examining allegations of corruption at a Kazakh iron ore subsidiary - although denied on Sunday that it was the subject of a formal investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO),
Read moreLondon midday: Stocks continue to fall, banks tumble
12th Dec 2011 11:49
The Footsie was trading just below the 5,500 level at midday, with banks and miners providing a drag on London's blue chip index. It seems that markets across Europe have given a lukewarm reaction to the 'fiscal compact' agreed by (some) EU leaders late last week, with indices in Paris, Frankfurt an
Read moreLondon open: Banks and miners drag down Footsie
12th Dec 2011 08:44
Mining stocks are dragging the Footsie down in early going, while banks are also weak as investors bank profits after the sector shot up on Friday. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is one of the big fallers in the banking sector after the long-awaited report from the Financial Services Authority (FSA)
Read moreFSA sees mix of factors behind the failure of RBS
12th Dec 2011 07:30
In a much awaited report published this morning, the Financial Services Authority concludes that there were seven factors which, when combined, led to the near-collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). One such factor was the bank's poor management decisions. Those same factors were, in turn, aggr
Read moreLondon close: Banks provide a boost after summit
9th Dec 2011 16:45
The EU summit has of course dominated markets today and investors have taken the news reasonably well, with benchmark indices across Europe finishing between 2-3% higher after Eurozone nations (and some others) reached an agreement on enhancing fiscal discipline and strengthening economic policy coo
Read moreFTSE 100 Movers: Banks and miners head north
9th Dec 2011 14:44
The banks - Lloyds, RBS and Barclays - took the top spots, rising around 3% each, as markets digest last night's developments from the EU summit. Mining peers Fresnillo, ENRC, Kazakhmys, Xstrata and Antofagasta were also making gains. EU leaders have failed in a bid to make changes to the treatie
Read moreLondon midday: Footsie extends gains, banks jump
9th Dec 2011 12:02
A strong performance by the banks and the miners lifted the FTSE 100 into positive territory by lunchtime, despite a fall early on, as markets digest last night's developments from the EU summit. Bourses across the Eurozone were all in the blue ahead of the conclusion of the meeting this afternoon.
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