Beauty parades are no way to recruit April 21, 2010 THERE is some very bizarre behaviour going on,” says David Sims, professor of organisational behaviour at Cass Business School in London. He has heard of one HR department that threw away any applications written in blue ink, not because anybody believed there was anything wrong with those candidates, but just as a way of whittling [...]
Rebound in oil prices and strong bank results give FTSE a one per cent boost April 20, 2010 RECOVERING oil prices fuelled a one per cent rise in energy stocks and banks also gained to push Britain’s top share index one per cent higher by yesterday’s close. The FTSE 100 index ended up 55.78 points at 5,783.69, having closed down 0.3 per cent on Monday. The index is up 6.9 per cent this [...]
Apple and Yahoo lift US stocks with strong results April 20, 2010 US stocks rose yesterday as oil prices lifted energy shares and investors were upbeat about the overall profits recovery, even as some high-profile results fell short of lofty expectations. Goldman Sachs earnings trounced forecasts, but its stock slipped 2.1 per cent to $159.98. UK regulators launched a probe into alleged fraud by the company, adding [...]
How to find alpha even in a storm April 20, 2010 ABSOLUTE return funds claim to offer the Holy Grail of fund management, by delivering positive returns regardless of whether markets rise or fall. It’s a great pitch, and there has been a spate of new launches. But is absolute return really that fabulous? Absolute return funds work differently to conventional “relative return” funds, where the [...]
With a global fund, the world is your oyster April 20, 2010 TRADITIONALLY, British institutional investors have been interested mostly in regional funds, leveraging local knowledge to bring returns. But there are signs that global funds – which cover all sectors and regions – are growing in popularity. Data from Lipper, the fund management research firm, shows that 16 and 20 global equity funds available to UK [...]
SALISBURY LIVES ON IN BRITAIN PLC April 20, 2010 DICK TURPIN MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS WHOEVER wins the election, one thing is clear. The UK economy is in dire straits. Amid the abundance of analysis, the billions here and there, one simple statistic makes sense to me. The UK government is spending £4 for every £3 of revenue. And as even Errol Flynn discovered, reconciling [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS April 20, 2010 MORNINGSTAR RATES NEW FUNDS Fund information company Morningstar has just assigned ratings to four funds available for sale in the UK. GLG’s Japan CoreAlpha Equity fund receives an elite rating thanks to the experience of fund managers Stephen Harker and Neil Edwards who are “talented stock pickers who have put their long experience to excellent [...]
Sterling will not suffer further in hung parliament April 20, 2010 CLEGGMANIA appears to have grabbed Britain – or at least its front pages – in the wake of last week’s first televised debate. Polls yesterday put Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats just two points behind the Conservatives and four points ahead of Labour. The prospect of a hung parliament is becoming a real possibility, even if [...]
Swedes should act to weaken krona April 20, 2010 AFTER rushing to cut interest rates at the peak of the financial crisis, the next challenge for central bankers is when to start the tightening cycle. The National Bank of Australia has already taken the plunge and hiked rates twice this year, while last month Sweden’s central bank signalled it would raise interest rates in [...]