Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying
Top stories
The Times: A High Court ruling that dividends from foreign subsidiaries
should be tax free could cost the
Treasury £5 billion ($7.7 billion).
Financial Times: The Financial Services Authority altered the deposit
protection scheme to ensure savers do
not lose out when building societies merge.
The Times: JD Sports Fashion is considering
a bid for fashion sportswear rival JJB Sports.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Things are so bad that investors seem to
have stopped punishing companies
for slashing their dividends.
Jeff Randall in the Daily Telegraph: Just as the rest of us are
learning to live within our means, the Prime Minister and Chancellor are letting
rip .
Philip Stephens in the Financial Times: What began as a series of
pragmatic responses by governments and central banks is moving
the boundary between state and market.
Upside
The Times: UBS, the Swiss banking giant, ordered executive bonuses
worth SwFr70 million (£38 million, $58 million) to
be forfeited and the partial end of client secrecy.
New York Times: US retailers have already
embarked on a price-cutting frenzy that is expected to continue through
a tough holiday season.
The Times: Britain’s average house price fell 0.4 per cent, or £430
($660), during November, the slowest
decline in a year.
Downside
The Times: Court-appointed managers have began seeking
buyers for Woolworths, the high street retail chain, and MFI, the
discount furniture chain.
The Independent: Jaguar Land Rover sacked
850 workers at its West Midlands car plant just hours before industry
chiefs pleaded for government help.
The Times: Equitable Life, the UK’s oldest mutual insurer, halted
the sale of its £6 billion ($9 billion) with-profits fund after a year
of trying to find a buyer.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Robert Lerwill, the chief executive of Aegis, was
ousted after a boardroom spat that revived hopes of a tie-up with
Havas, a rival advertising group.
The Independent: Sir Philip Green, the retail tycoon, has dropped
his plans to launch a takeover bid for Moss Bros, the menswear retailer
and suit hire group.
Daily Telegraph: RDF Media, the television production company, will
be sold to its management and a Dutch investment vehicle for £52
million ($80 million).
Around Asia
Financial Times: China’s top economic planner said the nation’s
economic downturn has accelerated
and could lead to high unemployment and social unrest.
Bloomberg: Japan’s recession deepened
last month as companies cut production, consumers spent less and fewer
people looked for work.
Financial Times: Panasonic, the Japanese consumer electronics maker, slashed
its operating profit forecast by 40 per cent on falling sales and prices.
Look ahead
The Times: DSG International, the owner of Currys and PC World, hopes
for a post-Christmas spending splurge
after reporting its first half-yearly loss in 20 years.
Financial Times: Eurozone official interest rates are almost certain to
be slashed by at least half a percentage point on Thursday, December 4.
Bloomberg: Rio Tinto may have its credit
rating downgraded because of the mining giant’s high level of debt and
falling commodity prices.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 2,427.97 up 2.3% (Thursday close)
Dow 8,726.61 up 2.9% (Wednesday close, market closed Thursday for Thanksgiving)
S&P 500 887.68 up 3.5% (Wednesday close)
Nasdaq 1,532.10 up 4.6% (Wednesday close)
Nikkei 8,421.09 up 0.6% (latest)
Hang Seng 13,846.40 up 2.2% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.5390/1.1934 euros (latest)
Euro $1.2896 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $52.97 down 16 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $53.52 down 92 cents (latest)
Gold $813.90 up $2.60 (latest)
New York
Reuters: Wall Street was closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day
holiday.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian commodity stocks
rose on expectations government rescue plans would boost demand. BHP
Billiton, the world’s biggest miner and Australia’s top oil producer,
rose 5.5 per cent on higher oil prices. Woodside Petroleum,
Australia's second-largest oil producer, rose 5.3 per cent and Mitsui,
which generates the most profit from oil among Japan's trading companies,
rose 8.7 per cent. Komatsu, the Chinese excavator maker, rose 5.5 per
cent and Doosan Infracore, South Korea's biggest
construction-equipment maker, rose 1.9 per cent. Panasonic, the
consumer electronics maker, fell 10 per cent after slashing its profit
forecast. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.5 per cent to 81.90 in morning
trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Randgold Resources, Tate & Lyle, Amlin, the Lloyd’s
insurer, and Serco, the public sector outsourcer, all look poised to
enter the FTSE 100 index at the quarterly reshuffle next month.
Randgold, up 208p at £25.16, is much admired because its productive mine in
Mali, Africa has potential for expansion.
Fresnillo, the recently floated Mexican silver and gold miner, up 13.1p
at 148.1p, is almost certain to fall out of the FTSE 100. Two oil services
firms - John Wood Group up 5p at 211.25p and Petrofac, up
0.25p at 336.75p and Stagecoach, up 11p at 169.6p, at current
valuations of around £1 billion are likely to drop out of the blue chip
index.
Miners were once again the top performers, with heavily shorted Xstrata up
12 per cent and Kazakhmys, the copper miner, gaining 11 per cent.
In the FTSE 250, BlueBay Asset Management dived 30 per cent to 70p on
a profit warning as it said it would have to close one of its key funds,
triggered, it is understood, by a flood of redemptions.
Robert Lindsay
robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
INTERIMS
DSG
Goldshield
Hyder Consulting
RPC Group
FINALS
JPMorgan Asian Investment Trust
Standard Life European Private Equity Trust
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