London open: Early gains for blue chips
5th Oct 2010 08:51
Blue chips have moved up gently in the first hour helped by reassuring trading updates from Tesco and TUI Travel. Supermarket giant Tesco's first half profits surged 12% despite sluggish underlying sales in the UK. Pre-tax profits rose to £1.6bn in the half year to August on sales up 8.3% to £32.9b
Read moreLondon pre-open: London ignores Wall Street lead
5th Oct 2010 07:41
Fears that London might follow Wall Street lower look set to be allayed, with City sources predicting the FTSE100 will open 15 points up from yesterday's close of 5,556. Supermarket giant Tesco's first half profits surged 12% despite sluggish underlying sales in the UK. Pre-tax profits rose to £1.6
Read moreTesco shrugs off tough UK market
5th Oct 2010 07:10
Supermarket giant Tesco's first half profits surged 12% despite sluggish underlying sales in the UK. Pre-tax profits rose to £1.6bn in the half year to August on sales up 8.3% to £32.9bn including VAT. All regions saw an improved trading performance in the second quarter over the first Tesco said.
Read moreTuesday newspaper round-up: Tesco, BHP Billiton, Twitter...
5th Oct 2010 06:38
About half of the eight million mortgages approved in the past five years would have been banned under the tougher affordability rules proposed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), a study suggests. Research published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) will also say that 3.8m of those l
Read moreTuesday preview: Tesco, CVS, Service Sector
4th Oct 2010 16:21
Britain's largest retail group, Tesco, releases interim figures on Tuesday. The group is famed for driving hard bargains with its suppliers but it announced in the middle of last month that it would start paying its milk suppliers an extra 1.28p per litre from the beginning of October. The move is
Read moreSunday newspaper round-up: Premier Foods, Prudential, Tesco
3rd Oct 2010 11:34
Shareholders have opened fire on Premier Foods for failing to cut debts of £1.4bn and are calling for a shake-up at the company that produces brands such as Hovis, Mr Kipling, Bisto, Sharwoods and Homepride, the Observer reports. The calls come as Premier Foods's share price has crashed to 16p - cl
Read moreWeek Ahead: Supermarkets, recruiters, BoE rate decision
1st Oct 2010 11:36
Retailers and recruiters are to the fore next week, with Tesco, Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer (M&S) from the former constituency, and Robert Waters, Hays and Michael Page from the latter all set to update the market. Britain's largest retail group, Tesco, releases interim figures on Tuesday. The gr
Read moreThursday newspaper round-up: Banks, Ireland, Unilever
30th Sep 2010 06:29
Downing Street appeared to be snubbing the banking industry yesterday as it finalised a 16-strong panel of corporate grandees to advise the Prime Minister on business matters. While manufacturing, construction, utilities, retailing and small businesses are well represented, no one from the banking
Read moreTesco boss slams short-termist investors
27th Sep 2010 14:10
Sir Terry Leahy is the latest person to criticise the City, although in his case it is what he sees as the short-termism of fund managers. Sir Terry, who steps down as Tesco chief executive next March, is forthright in his opinions of fund managers but he does not use as strong language as Busine
Read moreMonday newspaper round-up: Barclays, Tesco, Investec...
20th Sep 2010 06:41
Barclays is working on contingency plans to make radical changes in an attempt to head off more draconian government measures. The high street bank is looking at ways to ring-fence its deposits and is considering whether to put its investment banking arm Barclays Capital into a separate legal entit
Read moreTesco pays farmers more for milk
17th Sep 2010 08:37
Supermarket giant Tesco will pay its preferred group of milk suppliers more for every pint it buys from the beginning of next month. Farmers will get 28.18p per litre, up 1.28p on the previous price, although you'll have to be a member of the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group to feel the benefit. Only
Read moreLondon close: Footsie little changed
2nd Sep 2010 16:31
Leading shares struggled for direction all day and closed little changed as most blue chips traded sideways. Wall Street was similarly becalmed with the Dow Jones up just one point in the first few hours. European bourses did better as the ECB upped its forecast for eurozone growth for this year an
Read moreLondon afternoon: Bid talk spices up dull day
2nd Sep 2010 14:28
Leading shares are still lacking direction, a condition matched in the US where shares are expected to open mixed. High-flying computer chip designer ARM Holdings is flying a little lower today after Panmure Gordon reiterated its "sell" recommendation and cut its price target for the stock to 265p
Read moreTesco wants Carrefour's SE Asian empire
2nd Sep 2010 11:56
Britain's largest supermarket Tesco is one of ten bidders battling it out to win the Southeast Asian business of French supermarket chain Carrefour. Up for grabs are 61 stores in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand worth an estimated £650m. Tesco already has a big operation in the region, mostly in S
Read moreThursday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Burger King, BHP Billiton
2nd Sep 2010 06:03
Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket, is one of 10 bidders in the £650m auction for the south-east Asian assets of French rival Carrefour. Other bidders in the first round of bids for the stores are thought to include Casino, another French retailer, Aeon, the vast Japanese supermarket group, and Dai
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