Take a punt on the market outlook for bricks and mortar September 13, 2009 A YEAR ago, many housing market observers were predicting doom. Prices would keep falling well into 2010, they said. The market could take years to pick up. But how wrong they were. Just as we have seen in the stock market, things have turned round much more quickly than almost anybody thought. Mortgage lender Halifax [...]
THE TIPSTER NEW FINDS POWERING OIL AND GAS September 13, 2009 ACTIVITY in oil and gas companies has been going strong over the past few weeks, making a number of small and mid-caps ripe for a buy. Last week’s announcement that Desire Petroleum has managed to secure a rig for drilling in the Falklands Islands, where up to 3bn barrels of oil and gas may be [...]
Witching week to make a wary start September 13, 2009 With poetic timing, the FTSE finally did it. Almost a year to the day of the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, the London blue-chip index closed above the 5,000 point barrier on Friday after a tour de force week in which the market stormed up 160 points. The week ahead however is likely to [...]
Wall Street boosted by a bright outlook September 10, 2009 US stocks gained for a fifth straight session yesterday, their longest string of gains since November, as a bright outlook from consumer product company Procter & Gamble and a successful Treasury bond auction boosted investors’ confidence. Strong demand for the sale of 30-year Treasury bonds lifted confidence in US assets, including stocks. The S&P 500 [...]
Energy and bank stocks push FTSE 100 back below 5,000 September 10, 2009 THE FTSE 100 drifted lower yesterday, unable to stay above the 5,000 level as energy and bank stocks weighed heavily. It closed down by 16.62 points, or 0.3 per cent to 4,987.68, having closed above 5,000 for the first time since late September 2008 on Wednesday. “We’re taking a bit of a pause from what [...]
MBAs give you a flexibility that employers love September 9, 2009 IF there are people who doubt the value of an MBA, the Home Office isn’t one of them. A few years ago it introduced a points-based system for those wishing to immigrate to the UK. The receipt of a Nobel prize, Oscar or an Olympic medal gets you 25 points. If you have an MBA, [...]
Even before CSR, good business schools were already ethical September 9, 2009 MY word is my bond”, is the motto of the London Stock Exchange. There is a reason that this notion is fundamental to the City. Without trust, there can be no business – on the most basic level, you have to be able to believe that the goods you have paid for will be delivered, [...]
Glistening gold gives ETF investors protection against future inflation September 9, 2009 EARLIER this week, gold powered through the psychologically important $1,000 an ounce level, rising as high as $1,007.45. December 2009 US gold futures rose to $1,009.4 per ounce. The rise in interest in gold has also caused ripples in the world of exchange-traded commodities (ETCs), where gold ETCs have seen the biggest inflows this year [...]
FIXED INCOME AND REGIONAL ETFS BOOMING September 9, 2009 NIZAM HAMIDHEAD OF SALES STRATEGY, ISHARES EUROPE IN WHAT has been a tough environment for many investment products, exchange-traded products (ETPs), which include both exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs), have gone from strength to strength in the past year, recording net inflows of €41.2bn. During the financial crisis, investors have migrated away from [...]
Large caps break 5,000 as travel gets its day in the sun September 9, 2009 THE FTSE 100 ended a week of waiting yesterday to pull itself above the 5,000 level by the close. The benchmark index rose by 1.2 per cent on the back of strong oil and bank stocks, as well as early gains on Wall Street. By the close the index was 56.96 points higher at 5,004.30, [...]