Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying
Top stories
The Times: The future of BP’s investment in Russia hangs in the balance
after Robert Dudley, the chief executive of TNK-BP, decided to leave
the country .
New York Times: The Ford Motor Company posted an $8.7 billion (£4.4
billion) loss for the quarter, its worst
result ever , and its shares fell 10 per cent.
Telegraph: JP Morgan, the US banking giant, is trying to form
a consortium to break up HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: It is becoming clear that Russia no longer
has a functioning system of government as BP, Britain’s biggest company, is chased
out of the nation.
Jeff Randall in the Telegraph: When the final chapter of Labour's
spectacular self-immolation is written, the unavoidable conclusion will be: it
was the debt what dunnit.
John Thornhill in the Financial Times: The world must become more
like Europe as the globe’s different forms of capitalism clash.
Upside
The Times: Rolls Royce’s marine division increased sales by 45 per cent
to £1 billion ($2 billion) in the first half of the year as shippers bought
up its efficient engines.
The Independent: B&Q, Britain's biggest retail DIY chain, reported its
first underlying sales growth for
18 months, and shares in parent Kingfisher rose 6.5 per cent.
The Times: Credit Suisse's investment bank swung
back into profit in the second quarter; it made SwFr281 million (£137
million, $271 million) and its shares rose 5 per cent.
Downside
The Times: Retail sales suffered a record
slump of 3.9 per cent last month, adding to recession fears.
New York Times: US regulators have accused Optiver, a Dutch trading
company, of “bullying” oil markets
to generate an illegal $1 million profit.
Telegraph: Shares in Cadogan Petroleum fell by a third after it
revealed a number of its oil licences had been declared
invalid by a Ukrainian court.
Mergers and shakers
Financial Times: South Korea’s National Pension Service, with $200
billion (£101 billion) in assets, is examining
buying stakes in a number of foreign financial institutions.
The Times: Malcolm Calvert, a former partner at Cazenove, the Queen's
stockbroker, has been charged with
insider dealing.
Reuters: Morgan Stanley is aggressively
recruiting brokers from Merrill Lynch and other rivals to expand its
global wealth management business.
Around Asia
Reuters: South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of
memory chips and LCD screens, posted disappointing
second quarter results and predicted a tough third quarter.
Financial Times: Japanese exports
shrank for the first time in nearly five years in June.
Bloomberg: Hyundai Engineering & Construction, South Korea's largest
builder, increased profit by 60 per
cent in the second quarter to 117.1 billion won (£58 million, $116 million).
Look ahead
The Times: Wrapit, the upmarket wedding list service, must
find a rescuer in the coming week or the online retailer will have to
call in the administrators.
Bloomberg: Microsoft says it will
spend at least $1.2 billion (£600 million) a year for the foreseeable
future to compete with Google for online advertising.
Reuters: Clear Channel Communications, the US radio and billboard
operator, will on Wednesday be taken over
by two private equity funds in a deal worth $17.9 billion (£9 billion).
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,362.30 down 1.6% (Thursday close)
Dow 11,349.28 down 2.4% (close)
S&P 500 1,252.54 down 2.3% (close)
Nasdaq 2,280.11 down 2% (close)
Nikkei 13,393.81 down 1.5% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,728.71 down 1.6% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.9852/1.2663 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5678 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $125.53 up 4 cents (latest)
Gold $927.80 up $5.50 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks tumbled
more than 2 per cent as investors took profit from financial shares, which
had rallied over the past week. Fannie Mae lost nearly 20 per cent
and Freddie Mac lost 18.4 per cent just a day after the House
approved a government lifeline for the mortgage giants. Among the
financials, Citigroup fell 9.8 per cent and Goldman Sachs fell
4.1 per cent. Home builder Ryland Group's shares fell 19.1 per cent. Ford
shares fell 15.3 per cent on a reporting a surprisingly large loss. Defense
contractor Boeing's shares fell 6.3 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell
for the first time this week, led by financial companies and consumer
electronics makers. National Australia Bank, the country's largest,
tumbled 11 per cent as it set aside more for credit losses.
ANZ bank fell 5.2 per cent and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ fell
2.6 per cent. Samsung, Asia's largest maker of flat screens, chips
and mobile phones, fell 4.1 per cent on a disappointing profit report and
camera-maker Canon fell 2.6 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index
lost 1.6 per cent in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Daily Mirror, dazzled in a
retreating market on talk that India’s biggest media group, Bennett Coleman,
was considering a bid.
The publisher of the subcontinent’s The Times of India,
controlled by the Sahu Jain family, is known to be on the hunt for foreign
acquisitions and could afford the £800 million debt, pension liability and
equity cost of Trinity.
The rumours helped Trinity’s shares recover from a 5.25p fall to close up 4
per cent.
The FTSE 100 lost 87.6 to 5362.3 dragged down by mining and oil stocks as
fears grew about falling global demand for steel and cars. These were stoked
by shock production cuts from France’s Renault and Germany’s Daimler,
grim results from Ford and a warning from Finland’s stainless steel
producing giant Outokumpu.
Talvivaara, which mines nickel for stainless steel, lost 9 per cet and
iron ore miners - Eurasian Natural Resources, 6.5 per cent and Ferrexpo
4 per cent. Lonmin, which produces platinum for autocatalysts, was
down per cent.
In the FTSE 250, Aricom, the iron ore miner in Russia lost 15 per cent.
It has enough cash to last it until next May and has hired Morgan Stanley to
raise a $1 billion loan.
Robert Lindsay
robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
INTERIMS
Beazley
FINALS
None scheduled
AGMs
e2v technologies
Enfis
Hidefield Gold
Hilton Ventures
KazakhGold Group
KCom Group
Legal & General UK Growth
New Britain Palm Oil
Pan Pacific Aggregates
Tandem Group
United Utilities
Yell Group
EGMs
None scheduled
TRADING STATEMENTS
Britvic (Q3)
Mitchells & Butlers
United Utilities
ECONOMICS
UK Q2 preliminary GDP (0930 BST)
UK May services output (0930 BST)
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