London midday: Footsie maintains early momentum
6th Aug 2010 13:05
Footsie is still well ahead, though all eyes are on the 1.30pm announcement of US non-farm payroll figures. Consensus is for a job loss figure of between 65,000 and 100,000, anything worse than that would be considered very bad news. Within the numbers, economists will also watch for private emplo
Read moreLondon open: Bright start as RBS pleases
6th Aug 2010 08:44
London's blue chips have made a bright start with Royal Bank of Scotland dominating the morning headlines after the bank returned to the black. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is "on track" to achieve goals set out in its five-year recovery plan after posting a pre-tax profit of £1.16bn for the second
Read moreLondon pre-open: RBS to take centre stage
6th Aug 2010 07:35
London's blue chips are expected to make a good start to the last trading session of the week, with Royal Bank of Scotland likely to dominate the morning headlines after the bank returned to the black. Traders anticipate Footsie to add around 22 points in early dealings. Royal Bank of Scotland (RB
Read moreRBS makes over £1bn in Q2
6th Aug 2010 07:06
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is "on track" to achieve goals set out in its five-year recovery plan after posting a pre-tax profit of £1.16bn for the second quarter of 2010. The bank, which lost £21m in the first quarter and produced a small profit of £59m this time last year, made £1.14bn for the h
Read moreFriday newspaper round-up: Royal Bank of Scotland, Wheat, Barclays
6th Aug 2010 06:32
Royal Bank of Scotland is today expected to announce the sale of the UK's leading credit card payment processing business to private equity in a £2bn ($3.18bn) deal expected to generate an £800m to £900m book gain. People close to the transaction said RBS hoped to announce the sale of its Global Me
Read moreFriday preview: RBS, Logica, Non-farm payrolls
5th Aug 2010 17:35
Royal Bank of Scotland will dominate the morning headlines with the state-owned bank tipped to return to the black tomorrow. Brokers suggest it could post a pre-tax profit of £200m, though there is still much chopping and changing on the go at RBS, the actual figures could be well above or well bel
Read moreRBS reshapes Aviva partnership
5th Aug 2010 07:39
State-owned lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and insurance giant Aviva have confirmed that they are to renew their strategic partnership. RBS has signed non-binding heads of terms with a view to entering into a new distribution agreement with Aviva, replacing the current partnership arrangement
Read moreLondon close: Rally falls short
4th Aug 2010 16:50
The FTSE 100 briefly made it into positive territory in the afternoon session but that only lured out more sellers and the blue-chip index closed slightly down on the day. Shares in Next remained in the doghouse all day, not so much because of the performance in the first half of its financial yea
Read moreLondon midday: Stocks start to recover
4th Aug 2010 12:08
Leading share prices have come off the bottom but the FTSE 100 remains in arrears, following mixed news on the corporate front. Shares in Next are sharply lower. The fashion retailer has noticed a 'cooling' in consumers' demand in recent months, but still expects profits this year to rise by betwee
Read moreEuropean midday: Banks largely lower
4th Aug 2010 12:02
Europe's main markets remain in the red in midday dealings as investors consider a mixed bag of results in the banking sector. Quarterly profits at Societe Generale beat analyst forecasts, climbing more than threefold, helped by a good performance of its French retail business. The Paris-based ban
Read moreEuropean open: Banking figures in focus
4th Aug 2010 09:06
European shares slipped early on Wednesday after a number of the region's biggest banks updated the market on their recent performance. Quarterly profits at Societe Generale beat analyst forecasts, climbing more than threefold, helped by a good performance of its French retail business. The Paris
Read moreLondon open: Blue chips lower on mixed results
4th Aug 2010 08:40
London has made a quiet start after a decline on Wall Street overnight and mixed trading statements this morning. Lloyds is very much back in the black after posting a profit of £1.6bn for the first half of 2010, twice as much as some analysts had forecast. The bank, which lost almost £4bn this tim
Read moreLondon pre-open: Stocks to pull back
4th Aug 2010 07:30
Early losses look likely in London this morning as investors react to a decline on Wall Street overnight. Futures prices currently indicate a 22-point decline for the FTSE 100 when trading starts shortly. Lloyds is very much back in the black after posting a profit of £1.6bn for the first half of
Read moreSantander confirms RBS branches buy
4th Aug 2010 07:09
Santander's UK arm has confirmed the acquisition of more than 300 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland for £1.65bn, slightly less than expected. The deal will catapult Santander UK into the number two slot in UK retail banking. It already owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. To
Read moreLondon afternoon: Fire sale at BP continues
3rd Aug 2010 14:14
After yesterday's dramatic rise London is taking a pause for breath today and either digesting the steady stream of big company results already out this week or preparing for results from the giants of the insurance and banking sectors later this week. Insurance colossus Aviva , scheduled to releas
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