US construction growth sparks Ashtead profits September 3, 2015 Equipment hire group Ashtead topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard yesterday, bucking the woes of the wider sector to unveil encouraging first-quarter results. The company, which derives 85 per cent of its revenues from its North American business Sunbelt, reaped the rewards of the continued US construction recovery as it posted a 20 per cent rise [...]
Volkswagen’s board backs extension of chief exec Martin Winterkorn’s contract September 3, 2015 Volkswagen yesterday proposed the extension of chief executive Martin Winterkorn’s contract until the end of 2018, proving that he has the company’s backing following a high-profile power struggle with former chairman Ferdinand Piech, who was ousted earlier this year. The executive committee of the supervisory board of the German car manufacturing giant unanimously voted in [...]
FTSE index quarterly review: Berkeley Group Holdings’ FTSE 100 place confirmed, Weir Group out September 2, 2015 Berkeley Group Holdings will officially join the FTSE 100 later this month with engineering company Weir Group making way. Read more: Housebuilder shares drop on "vanilla" house price data The anticipated reshuffle was confirmed as part of the index's quarterly review which also announced FTSE 250 entrances for Circassia Pharmaceuticals, P2P Global Investments and Sophos Group. [...]
WH Smith IT glitch shares users’ private data in mass emails September 2, 2015 WH Smith has sent users' private data out in mass emails to other customers following an IT glitch. The source of the breach seems to be a poorly constructed contact form on the retailer’s website. When a customer fills out the form, instead of sending the message to the company itself, the information was sent [...]
Windows 10 is already outselling Mac OS X and Windows Vista, as Microsoft says its new operating system is growing at “unprecedented” rate September 2, 2015 Microsoft can breathe a sigh of relief: after the unpopularity of Windows 8, the newly-released operating system Windows 10 is growing at an unprecedented rate. After one month on the market, figures released today show the system already has over five per cent of the PC market, making it the fourth biggest operating system in [...]
Exclusive video: Canary Wharf Group unveils prices for homes at former Shell Centre Southbank Place September 2, 2015 Prices for homes in Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar’s controversial Shell Centre scheme on London’s South Bank were unveiled today, with a two-bedroom flat setting buyers back as much as £1m. Read more: Almacantar buys Shell Centre offices on South Bank for £550m Around 863 homes are due to be built on the the 5.25-acre riverside site, [...]
Amazon to open tenth UK fulfilment centre in Doncaster September 2, 2015 Amazon is creating over 300 new jobs as the internet retailer plans to open its tenth fulfilment centre in the UK this autumn. The company has chosen Doncaster as the location for its new 250,000 sq ft warehouse, which will be the second fulfilment centre in the city, as a first one opened in 2010. [...]
Halfords share price plummets on poor summer bike sales September 2, 2015 Shares in car and bike maintenance retailer Halfords fell more than 7.7 per cent to 470.6p in early trading, after this summer's soggy weather hit its bicycle sales. The figures Like-for-like sales at the company dropped 1.3 per cent in the eight weeks to the end of August – although for cycling specifically the fall was 11 [...]
Revealed: the European funds hit hardest by last week’s market turbulence September 2, 2015 The funds suffering the biggest losses after last week’s global stock market chaos have been revealed, as FE Trustnet data shows the European fallout from last week's market turbulence. The worst-performing fund was Aberdeen Global European Equity Ex UK, which gets the unflattering crown after it suffered a 6.19 per cent loss over the month [...]
Asos share price falls as etailer confirms Nick Robertson to leave after 15 years; Nick Beighton to take reins September 2, 2015 Asos' share price tumbled this morning as the etailer confirmed boss Nick Robertson is stepping down as chief executive of the company he founded 15 years ago. Chief operating officer Nick Beighton will take on the reins with immediate effect. Robertson will stay on as a non-executive director. Beighton has been at Asos [...]