Brown sings’ Don’t think its over’

July 24th, 2009 by admin | Filed under Daily News, Employment, Mortgages, Recession, UK Banks, UK Small Business, UK employment.

government When U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced at a a press conference “ Don’t think its over” he wasn’t referring to his special relationship with Alasdair Darling, instead to the much more serious matter of the ongoing recession in the UK.

Brown hastened to point out that despite the many signs that the economy is stabilizing after a severe contraction that began almost two years ago and peaked in Autumn 2008 , “economic recovery cannot be taken for granted either here or abroad.”

He went on to add that the Labour government’s anti-recession measures “will shorten the recession and it will reduce its impact,” The Financial Services Authority (FSA) announced on Thursday that three HSBC firms have been fined a total of £3.2 million for” misplacing” client’s confidential details.

According to the FSA, HSBC Life lost an unencrypted CD with the details of thousands of policyholders, while HSBC Actuaries misplaced an unrelated disc containing a further 2,000 pension scheme members private details. HSBC Insurance was also fined.

FSA added that the fines could have reached as high as £4.5 million had the three firms not agreed to reach an early settlement In a statement to the Stock Exchange on Thursday National Express have announced the names of the mystery bidders interested in acquiring their company. Spain’s Cosmen family in partnership with the private equity group CVC, have made a joint takeover bid for National Express, in a deal that values the group at more than £500 million The Cosman family, are the currently the largest individual shareholders in National Express with 18.5 per cent of the shares.

On the news, National Express shares rose 4.4 per cent to 324p.
Also on the Stock Exchange Thursday, Mondi, Europe’s largest maker of paper bags, saw their shares soar in value by nine percent to 234.35 pence as a result of de-classification arrangement reached in their home base of South Africa.

Zetar, the confectionery and snacks business, announced yesterday that the collapse of Woolworths last year had had a profound effect on their turnover and profitability for their last trading year. Pre-tax profits for the company fell from £5.9m to £2m for the year to April 30, despite the fact that turnover rose from £109.2m to £118.6m..
Turnover from the confectionery division rose from £68.5m to £75.1m, and from the snacks division from £40.7m to £43.5m. But margins in both came under pressure from price rises in commodity ingredients.

The U.K.’s largest supplier of administrative services Capita Group announced that their first-half revenue had reached £1.3 billion. Despite the fact, their shares fell 0.5 pence, to 712.5.

Announcing that the process to split its two units is “well on track, Carphone Warehouse Group Plc, U.K.’s biggest mobile-phone retailer also added broadband clients and increased retail revenue in the first quarter. Their stock rose 0.5 pence to 166 on the news.

The publisher of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper Daily Mail and General Trust Plc announced that sales in the quarter ended June 30 had fallen to 520 million pounds ,13 percent down from the same period a year earlier. Despite that fact, their shares rose 4.25 pence, or 1.4 percent, to 310.75.

The owner of the Howden Joinery builders’ merchant Galiform surged 24 percent to 46.5 pence, on the announcement that their gross profit margin improved in the first half.
On Thursday , the FTSE 100 index closed up 66.07 points to 4,559.80, its highest level since January., while the FTSE 250 continued its relentless increase, gaining 93.18 to 7,887.23

Early falls in sterling following a press report that two UK banks require additional funding were reversed after the Bank of England announced that they had decided to maintain their asset purchase programme.

Pound/US dollar 1.6491
Pound/Euro 1.1647
Pound/Japanese Yen 156.1026
Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7716

Leading US shares jumped on the back of good corporate and economic news and closed at their highest levels for more than six months. The Dow Jones index closed above 9,000 for the first time since January, up 188 points, or 2.1% on the day.

On Wall Street , the Dow Jones rose by a massive 188.03 points to 9069.29 while the NASDAQ moved forward 47.22 points to close on 1973.6
Software giant, Microsoft reported disappointing results for the second quarter, with profits down by almost a third.

Net profit for the period was $3.1bn (£1.9bn), down by 29% from the same period a year earlier. Revenue came in at $13.1bn, down 17% from a year ago.
A spokesman for Microsoft said that the company had been affected by weakness in the global personal computer (PC) and server markets

The car industry was in the news on Thursday, with UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson announcing that the U.K. government is awaiting the decision , expected within a week on which company will be acquiring General Motors Co.’s operations in Europe.

There are currently two bids on the table SA for GM’s Opel unit which includes the Vauxhall brand in the U.K., from Magna International Inc. and RHJ International,
The only member of the “Big Three” US carmakers not to have gone bankrupt, Ford has gone on to show how it should be done by reporting a quarterly profit of $2.3bn (£1.4bn).

However, the euphoria around Ford was shattered when it was revealed that the profit was largely due to one-off gains related to debt restructuring, with demand for new cars remaining weak. Excluding the gain, Ford said it made an operating loss of $424m.

In Europe, Volkswagen (VW), finally announced their plans to buy German sports car firm Porsche. The takeover will be carried out in stages whilst retaining the Porsche’s autonomy. VW says its board will hold talks with Porsche “in order to reach a final concept fulfilling this goal”. Both sides had earlier said they wanted to form an integrated automotive group.

Oil prices continue to drop, while the base metals sector were mixed and gold retained its hold above the $950 an ounce level