FTSE 100 poised for longest losing streak since 2011 August 20, 2015 Britain's top share index fell for the eighth straight session today, putting it on course to clock its longest losing streak since 2011. The FTSE 100 was also down more than 10 per cent from its recent record high of 7,122.74 points hit in April – taking it into official correction territory, Britain's FTSE 100 [...]
Co-operative Bank losses nearly treble as turnaround plan gets underway August 20, 2015 The figures Co-op Bank said it made a loss of £204.2m in the first half of 2015, up from a £77m loss in the same period last year, however this was slightly better than expected. The bank’s operating income slumped to £236.5m during this period, from £307.3m in the first half of 2014. This included losses [...]
Amazon Web Services opens first startup support centre outside US in London’s Silicon Roundabout August 20, 2015 If you were looking for more evidence that Tech City is booming: Amazon has just announced it will open its first startup support centre outside the US – and is basing it in London’s Silicon Roundabout. Competition between cloud-based infrastructure providers has heated up recently, with Alibaba, Microsoft and Google all reporting rapid growth in [...]
The number of young people not in education, employment, or training is going down August 20, 2015 The job prospects for young people are improving, despite the fact unemployment overall has stopped declining. There were 922,000 young people who were not in education, employment or training (Neets) from April to June, the Office for National Statistics said this morning. It marks a drop of 21,000 from the first quarter of this year. The [...]
Students are more right-wing than the general public on key economic matters like tax rates, nationalisation and redistribution August 20, 2015 Students may have a reputation for being a bunch of radical left-wing activists, but it turns out when it comes to economic issues, they’re actually more right-wing than the general public. From anti-apartheid sit-ins to tuition fee protests, students sure do like to get involved in politics. But don’t be surprised if the next time [...]
UK house prices: The number of new houses being built has actually fallen August 20, 2015 Given we're in the midst of a housing crisis, and the government has made all manner of promises to increase the number of homes being built, this is hardly encouraging: new figures have shown the number of new housing starts actually fell to 33,280 in the second quarter, six per cent lower than the same [...]
Tesco share price falls as supermarkets suffer for third day amid renewed concerns about discounters Aldi and Lidl August 20, 2015 When one supermarket sneezes, it seems the rest catch a cold. Shares in troubled supermarket Tesco fell to their lowest level since January this morning, two days after Asda reignited concerns over the threat from German discounters. Tesco shares dropped 1.77 per cent today, while Sainsbury's shed 0.77 per cent. Both are down about four percent since [...]
UK retail sales rise 0.4 per cent in July as summer sales entice shoppers August 20, 2015 UK retail sales rose 0.4 per cent in July, official data showed today – suggesting summer sales did the trick, enticing consumers to the high street. The figure – which strips out fuel sales – was an impressive turnaround from a 0.3 per cent fall in June. Including petrol, the figure showed a drop of [...]
WH Smith’s share price falls as retailer reveals full year results to beat expectations August 20, 2015 WH Smith's share price nudged down as it said sales would beat expectations for the full year to the end of August, in a pre-close announcement issued this morning. The retailer said there had been a strong performance in its travel division during the second half, with “good sales across all of our core [...]
Greece’s third bailout deal has been signed – here’s what happens next August 20, 2015 This evening, the head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) signed a contract for Greece's third bailout agreement, meaning a further €86bn (£61bn) of financial assistance will be released to the struggling economy over the next three years. Read more: Greek debt crisis: German lawmakers vote yes to bailout deal The board of governors approved the [...]