News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

Standard Life hit as market woes return

October 29, 2009

INSURER Standard Life yesterday reported a 15 per cent fall in sales for the first nine months of the year. The drop reflected weak financial markets and was broadly in line with forecasts. Britain’s fourth-biggest insurer by market value, revealed that life and pensions sales for the nine months to 30 September were £10.5bn – [...]
Qinetiq chief executive quits one day after critical RAF Nimrod crash report

October 29, 2009

THE chief executive of defence research business Qinetiq, Graham Love, stood down yesterday – a day after the company was heavily criticised in a report into the fatal RAF Nimrod aircraft crash in 2006. Love, who was with Qinetiq for eight years, will leave on 30 November but remains as a consultant to the group. [...]
MetLife posts its third quarterly loss in a row

October 29, 2009

METLIFE, the largest life insurer in the US, yesterday posted a quarterly loss, hurt by investment losses, some of which were tied to improvement in the company’s own credit spreads. The group’s operating results in the latest quarter matched Wall Street expectations and the results showed growth in sales across most of MetLife’s business operations, [...]
CITY VIEWS: WOULD YOU CUT DOWN THE AMOUNT OF COFFEE YOU BUY?

October 29, 2009

DANIEL VIPOND RFIB LIMITED“I wouldn’t cut back on coffee. I have a coffee every day. I don’t worry about the economics behind the coffee. It’s a staple dietary requirement. Petrol seems to have a more dramatic effect on consumers, but coffee is not as expensive so becomes a necessity.” SHARON LOWER CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD“Not at [...]
Home loans surge but British consumer remains subdued

October 29, 2009

MORTGAGE approvals soared to their highest levels in 18 months but credit card lending remained subdued as recession-hit consumers paid back their debts for the third successive month. Data from the Bank of England showed that a total of 56,215 mortgages were approved in September, up from 52,970 in August and above expectations, indicating that [...]
Money supply growth still disappointing

October 29, 2009

WEAK growth in the broad money supply in September has raised further questions over the effectiveness of the Bank of England’s quantitative easing (QE) policy and raised the likelihood that the central bank may extend the programme further when it meets next week. Headline M4, the measure for money supply, grew by 0.8 per cent [...]
Russia cuts interest rate

October 29, 2009

Russia’s central bank yesterday cut interest rates by 50 basis points to 9.5 per cent in an attempt to boost bank lending and reduce the attractiveness of short-term investments in Russian assets. It also reduced the repurchase rate charged on central bank loans to 8.5 per cent from nine per cent. Analysts thought that the [...]
German joblessness falls

October 29, 2009

German unemployment unexpectedly fell in October with the number of people out of work falling to a seasonally-adjusted 26,000 to 3.43m. The jobless rate slipped to 8.1 per cent from 8.2 per cent the previous month. The better situation in the job market added to signs of recovery in Europe’s largest economy and will ease [...]
Eurozone confidence recovering

October 29, 2009

A recovery in Eurozone confidence is well underway, according to data from the European Commission. The economic sentiment indicator rose to 86.2 in the area, with the largest contribution coming from firms’ optimism over their production expectations. Both the economic sentiment indicator and the business climate indicator registered their seventh consecutive monthly rise.
Audi drags VW profits lower

October 29, 2009

Volkswagen reported an 86 per cent fall in their third-quarter profits yesterday due to plunging vehicle prices and declining Audi sales. Net income fell to €172m (£154m), while sales declined 10.3 per cent to €26m (£23m). The company said full year sales would be lower than in 2008. It added rising refinancing costs and poor [...]