Investec: Challenger banks including OneSavings Bank, Aldermore are undervalued as investors are spooked by worries over buy-to-let regulation January 7, 2016 Concerns over increased regulation of the buy-to-let residential property market have prompted investors to undervalue some of Britain’s leading challenger banks, analysts at Investec have claimed. In a new note out today, Investec analysts upgraded their recommendation on OneSavings Bank, a FTSE250-listed lender, from “hold” to “buy” off the back of recent share price fluctuations. [...]
Standard Chartered deputy chief executive Mike Rees steps down January 7, 2016 Standard Chartered deputy group chief executive Mike Rees will step down at the end of April, the bank announced tonight. Rees, who has worked for Standard Chartered for 26 years, will retire on 30 April 2016, stepping down from both his job as deputy group chief executive and his role on the board, the bank said in [...]
Park Vale Capital’s cool £16m investment in Dearman’s zero-emissions liquid nitrogen freezer tech January 7, 2016 Park Vale Capital has announced it is investing £16m in Dearman’s liquid nitrogen freezer technology. Dearman, a clean energy start-up founded in 2011, will use the funding to develop and commercialise its zero-emissions ‘cold and power’ refrigerator engines, to be used in supermarket vans delivering food. Commercial trials are due to begin early this year, with [...]
Danish central bank raises interest rate (but it’s still negative) January 7, 2016 The Danish central bank has raised one of its key interest rates – but it's still in the negative. The bank said today it was hiking its deposit rate to minus 0.65 per cent, up from minus 0.75 per cent. It's not exactly earth-shaking – but it is one of the first European central banks to [...]
China Securities Regulatory Commission scraps stock circuit breaker rule as FTSE 100 and global markets tumble January 7, 2016 We learned yesterday morning that Chinese market circuit-breakers are like buses: you wait ages for one and then two come along at once. But clearly two of the country's largest stock exchanges have had enough: China Securities Regulatory Commission stock exchanges issued a statement saying it is scrapping the circuit-breaker, which has halted trading on the country's stock markets twice [...]
Brent crude oil price slides below $33 after PBOC depreciates renminbi January 7, 2016 Brent oil crashed to an almost-12-year-low today, after a Chinese stock market sell-off caused trading to be suspended for the second time this week. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down five per cent at $32.16 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the US benchmark, slumped 3.53 per cent at $32.77. Earlier today, the People's [...]
Eurozone economic confidence at its highest since 2011 as unemployment edges down January 7, 2016 Consumers and businesses in the Eurozone are feeling more confident on the economy, according to figures released this morning. The European Commission's economic sentiment indicator climbed 0.7 points to a score 0f 106.8 in December – the highest since 2011. Its average since 1990 is 100. Consumer confidence is being helped by a falling unemployment rate, which [...]
Sterling drops to five-year low against the dollar January 7, 2016 The pound hit a five-and-a-half-year low against the dollar today, as markets tumbled in the wake of turbulent trading in China. The pound was buying $1.4568 in mid-morning trading, after falling 0.42 per cent. It was also 8.2 per cent below its 2015 peak of 1.5883. Sterling was also down 1.16 per cent against the euro and [...]
Warnings over global instability gather pace as George Soros compares climate to 2008 January 7, 2016 Warnings over global stability gathering are pace, with legendary fund manager George Soros comparing the climate to that of the financial crisis in 2008. Speaking in Sri Lanka, Soros warned China is struggling to move away from export-led growth towards a more sustainable, domestic consumption-led economic model. The billionaire investor said the People's Bank of China's [...]
Halifax house price index: UK house prices rose 9.5 per cent last year. Yawn January 7, 2016 Another day, another confirmation that homes in the UK are increasingly unaffordable. House prices have risen 9.5 per cent in the year to December, according to figures from Halifax, which showed the average house price is now a £208,286. Ouch. Still: the UK's house prices are nothing if not dependable. The figure meant annual price growth stuck between [...]