News

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

Lack of stock propels house prices higher

October 6, 2009

HOUSE prices in Britain experienced their first quarterly rise in two years in the three months to September, which saw the value of a UK home rise 2.8 per cent over the period, Halifax said yesterday in its monthly survey, citing increased demand and a shortage of properties for sale. Data from the mortgage lender [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED THAT HOUSE PRICES COULD SOAR OUT OF CONTROL AGAIN?

October 6, 2009

TONY DOONA CARILLION“I don’t believe they will get out of control, in fact I think they’re more likely to go down again. There’s a shortage of cash in general and it’ll be no better next year. There’s no construction going on, simply because no one has any money. I can’t see the government doing anything [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS

October 6, 2009

LONMINCanaccord Adams changed its recommendation on Lonmin to a “sell” – from being under review and a “hold” prior to that – and increased the target price to 1,050p. The broker said that the share price is being driven by the potential for Xstrata to bid for the remainder of Lonmin, and argues that the [...]
GSK boosted by flu vaccines

October 6, 2009

SHARES in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) got a lift yesterday after the pharmaceuticals firm said it had won a further 22 government orders for its swine flu vaccine in the last two months. The new contracts take the number of doses of the H1N1 vaccine ordered from GSK to 440m, worth some $3.5bn (£2.2bn), a considerable sales [...]
Finsbury spins another healthy profits increase

October 6, 2009

CADBURY’S financial public relations adviser Finsbury has increased profits despite the downturn in the economy, according to documents filed at Companies House. Profits have reached £8.8m against £8.75m last year and founder Roland Rudd has seen his pay package reach £2.9m against £2.25m the year before. Rudd, a former financial journalist with the Financial Times, [...]
Tories detail plans for later retirement

October 6, 2009

THE TORY party softened its stance on bringing forward planned rises to the state retirement age yesterday, while the City attacked the cost-cutting plan as insufficient. Shadow chancellor George Osborne addressed the party faithful in Manchester, setting out his proposed measures to tackle what he calls “Labour’s debt crisis”. He confirmed plans, leaked on Monday [...]
Blackstone in windfall from oil field stake

October 6, 2009

BLACKSTONE shares rose by more than 4.5 per cent yesterday as the firm came in line for a giant windfall, after energy giant Exxon Mobil agreed to buy a stake in an oil field the private equity firm jointly controls. Exxon has snapped up a large interest in the Jubilee field in Ghana, which is [...]
Hodges to head Aviva UK as insurer announces management reshuffle

October 6, 2009

Aviva yesterday announced that its head of UK life insurance Mark Hodges is to become chief executive of its entire domestic business, bringing all its UK life and non-life operations under one leader. The move is part of a management shake-up which has been prompted by the retirement of Aviva’s chief executive of North America, [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS

October 6, 2009

ThreadneedleThe asset management firm has appointed Kris Haber as global head of hedge funds and head of the North American business. Haber, who will report directly to the firm’s chief executive Crispin Henderson, joins after a 13-year spell working for Lazard Asset Management, where he was most recently a managing director for global alternative investments. [...]
BY TORY CUTS MUST GO FURTHER, SAYS CITY

October 6, 2009

ECONOMISTS yesterday welcomed Tory plans to cut public spending by £23bn over the next parliament, but warned that the party would need to make much deeper cuts to plug the massive budget deficit. Speaking at the Tory party conference in Manchester, shadow chancellor George Osborne set out plans to shave £7bn a year from existing [...]