Economic news drives quiet week for trading March 25, 2012 TODAY Investors in highly volatile oil and exploration stocks could face surprises this week, as some small-cap firms report, but the UK market should start off quietly. Volume may pick up in the afternoon with pending home sales from the US. Given mildly disappointing existing home sales figures last week, pending home sales could also [...]
How the Budget will affect your finances March 25, 2012 High and middle income earners can expect to gain and lose, but pensioners, smokers, drinkers and drivers will all be penalised by the chancellor’s announcements last week THE chancellor made an abundance of announcements in this week’s Budget, invoking a variety of strong responses, both in support and against. The Budget contained both positives and [...]
Ex-City professional one step ahead of the cloud March 25, 2012 FROM growing up in the Rossendale valley – the once beating heart of the industrial revolution – Piers Linney is now a man with many strings to his bow: law, accounting, banking, media, finance and entrepreneurship. Now he has his head in cloud computing – a technological revolution with the scalability to turn over billions. [...]
BUDGET OPENS UP INCREASED INVESTMENT March 25, 2012 LAST week’s Budget announcement contained few shocks and surprises, yet some of the changes are vital to aiding London’s thriving hub of entrepreneurs and startups. Significantly, the government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) looks set to benefit from a much needed boost, with the announcement of an extension to its parameters. EIS already allows tax relief [...]
George Osborne delivers a decent deal for aspirant and established businesses March 25, 2012 THE men and women busy building Britain’s future economic wealth broadly welcomed last week’s Budget. Although lacking a radical strategy for growth, the coalition has gone some way in oiling the wheels of entrepreneurship. Richard Marsh explains how reforms to the Enterprise Investment Scheme has allowed the creation of the first angel co-investment fund in [...]
Fears of slowdown in China see miners and FTSE tumble March 22, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index fell yesterday, heading for its biggest weekly loss so far this year as signs of slower growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy, weighed on cyclical stocks. Heavyweight mining shares fell 3.2 per cent after data showed industrial activity in China, the world’s largest consumer of metals, shrank for a fifth [...]
Investors unnerved by poor factory data March 22, 2012 CYCLICAL sectors led US stocks lower yesterday, setting the S&P 500 up for its first negative week in six, after factory data showed a slowdown in both the Eurozone and China. The weak data is hardly a surprise for markets, as many analysts have already factored in a recession in the Eurozon and early this [...]
FTSE 100 ticks higher as boost for Vodafone helps counter commodity drag March 21, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index posted a fractional gain yesterday after a volatile session as strength in market heavyweight Vodafone countered weaker commodity stocks hit by below par US data that revived concerns over demand for metals. The UK blue chip index closed up 0.54 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 5,891.95, surrendering a 0.3 per [...]
Tech shares keep S&P at 4-year high March 21, 2012 US stocks mostly fell yesterday, weighed by the energy services sector, but gains in technology shares buoyed the Nasdaq and helped keep the S&P 500 near four-year highs. The benchmark S&P 500 index, up 11.6 per cent so far this quarter, found buyers at the 1,400 level, which has been held for five straight days. [...]
50p rate taxpayers should utilise their fleeting allowance March 21, 2012 BUDGETS are rarely driven by economic sense. More often than not politics triumphs over clarity. And the coalition, like all previous governments, tried to manage expectations – threatening in the lead up to yesterday to tinker with the rules on additional rate taxpayers’ relief on pensions, only to leave the rules unchanged. As such, no [...]
