London midday: Back to square one
23rd Mar 2011 12:24
Footsie ended the morning more or less where it started it, as investors sit tight ahead of the Budget speech at 12:30pm. Resource stocks are in demand, with ENRC sitting atop a buoyant mining sector and Cairn leading oils higher. Underlying profits more than doubled last year at Kazakhstan-based
Read moreLondon open: Market unsettled as Sainbury's disappoints
23rd Mar 2011 09:00
Budget days are normally quiet, but supermarket giant J Sainsbury's slightly disappointing trading update has unsettled the mood. Caution ahead of today's speech by the Chancellor will also be keeping some on the sidelines. Supermarket giant Sainsbury's grew like for like sales by slightly less th
Read moreThursday newspaper round-up: Banks, yen, oil
17th Mar 2011 06:00
Taxpayers will receive a "handsome" reward for bailing out the banks, according to the heads of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. Yet they criticised ongoing talk of the banks being too big to fail as a "red herring". The outgoing Lloyds chief executive Eric Daniels appeared in front
Read moreMonday newspaper round-up: Tesco, BAE Systems, Budget...
7th Mar 2011 06:47
Britain's leading supermarkets have been accused of misleading planning authorities by claiming to create tens of thousands of jobs when actually they employ fewer workers than they did two years ago. Tesco and J Sainsbury have made extravagant claims about the number of jobs they create in order t
Read moreSupermarkets profiteering from rising food prices
1st Mar 2011 14:19
Expanding food margins have outpaced the rising cost of food, leading to claims of profiteering at the UK's biggest supermarkets. Food prices in the UK have risen more sharply than any other member economy of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and have "significantly
Read moreLondon close: FTSE 100 rally falls short
28th Feb 2011 16:51
The top share index failed to sustain a rally that came on the back of strength in the US and closed a few points lower. A slight easing in the oil price lightened the mood. Crude had edged up in the morning session amid continuing turmoil in Libya and the spread of protests to the Gulf state of Om
Read moreLondon afternoon: Footsie waxes as oil price wanes
28th Feb 2011 14:29
Shares staged a recovery over lunch, boosted by indications of a firmer start on Wall Street and a weakening of the oil price. Oil prices had edged up in the morning session amid continuing turmoil in Libya and the spread of protests to the Gulf state of Oman. Brent crude for April delivery was abo
Read moreFTSE 100 movers: ABF warns on consumer demand
28th Feb 2011 13:53
Associated British Foods is leading the market lower. The British Sugar and Primark owner says that its interim figures will be in line with expectations but it warns of weakening UK consumer demand and rising cotton prices hitting margins. HSBC doubled its profits to over $19bn last year but it
Read moreLondon midday: Shares stuck lower
28th Feb 2011 12:05
Shares remain under pressure as the turmoil continues in the Arab world. Company updates have also been given a slightly frosty reception. Oil prices have edged up again amid continuing turmoil in Libya and the spread of protests to the Gulf state of Oman. Brent crude for April delivery was above $
Read moreTesco sets up China property venture
28th Feb 2011 07:14
Tesco has signed an agreement to set up a joint venture to develop shopping malls in China. Half of the joint venture will be owned by a consortium of leading Asian investors including Singapore's Metro Holdings. The total value of the project is in the region of £170m with Tesco and the joint ven
Read moreTesco set to outgrow international rivals
17th Feb 2011 16:31
Catching up with the world's biggest retailer, Walmart, is a daunting task, especially when it is set to notch up annual sales of $500bn by 2014, but UK champion Tesco is set to outperform the US titan over the next few years, according to food and grocery research company IGD. In a study of the to
Read moreFTSE 100 movers: Pending stake sale cheers Inmarsat
8th Feb 2011 14:14
Shares in Inmarsat have risen on the back of last night's news that Harbinger Capital Partners intends to sell its remaining 14% stake in the satellite operator. Last October, Harbinger raised £410m from the sale of 65m shares at 630p each. The remaining shareholding was subject to a 180 day lock-
Read moreM&S gets online boss from Tesco
7th Feb 2011 18:31
Marks & Spencer has poached Tesco's online boss to head up its e-commerce operations. Laura Wade-Gery is chief executive of Tesco.com and Tesco Direct and the date of her move to Marks & Spencer has not yet been confirmed. Wade-Gery will become executive director, multi-channel e-commerce at Mar
Read moreSunday tips round-up: Shell, Tesco bonds, Electrocomponents
6th Feb 2011 13:07
Shell missed consensus forecasts because of production issues and delays to its US Arctic drilling programme. The group strategy for a return to growth is sound, though, Shell remains the oil share to own for income seekers. Buy says the Telegraph. Tesco's banking arm, Tesco Bank, is raising betw
Read moreBroker tips: Tesco, De La Rue, KCOM
28th Jan 2011 14:20
Nomura says that while Tesco's international operations are widely acknowledged as under-appreciated, the same can be said of its position in the domestic market as the retailing giant has the headroom to double the number of its UK compact hypermarkets. Analyst Nick Coulter says that Tesco has sco
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