We are living in a time and a place where new cars cost less than old ones!

April 11th, 2009 by admin | Filed under Daily News, Recession, Retail.

There is no doubt that we are living through some difficult but unusual times. One of the strangest phenomena that we are experiencing at the moment is that it is now officially possible to buy a brand new car at a price lower than certain second hand version of the same model can be acquired for. What this will do to the prices of second hand cars in the future one can only speculate, but in the meantime it has to be worth it for those who can take advantage of these “once in a life time opportunities” to do so.

Some good news for first-time buyers and potential up-graders is that HSBC

have announced a new range of competitive deals. It is geared towards those who are not in a position to lay down large deposits. The bank will be setting aside around £1billion allowing 10,000 new home owners to borrow up to £100,000.

However to prove that HSBC have learned their lessons, borrowers must hold a current account at the bank, and pay a one –off management fee.

Barclays are back on the winning trail with news that their deal to sell its off iShares asset management business to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for 3 billion pounds has been finally penned.

The announcement made on Thursday shows that Barclays expect to realize a profit of 1.5 billion pounds on the deal.

It was no surprise on Thursday that the Bank of England’s announce that they will hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent for the first time since they began reducing interest rates in September 2008. At the same tine the bank confirmed their commitment to acquire £150billion in government gilts and corporate bonds.

The credit crunch has begun to dig deep in the Irish Republic with the country’s finance minister Brian Lenihan warning that the nation faced “the challenge of its life”. The minister announced that he would be imposing a series of higher taxes on in an emergency budget aimed at tackling the country’s economic crisis.

Plans included the establishment of a national asset management agency to take over an estimated €80bn-€90bn of “toxic debt” currently handled by l domestic banks.

On the stock exchange the stars of the day were Barclays Plc whose shares rose by jumped 12 percent to 177.5 pence

The government controlled mortgage lender Lloyds Banking Group also saw their shares increase by 11 percent to 79.5 pence.

Commodities were on the increase with Vedanta, the aluminum refiners climbing 13 percent (93 pence to 873.5) on the news that their fourth-quarter aluminum output gained 31 percent after their Jharsuguda smelter began its operations.

Chilean copper mine owners Antofagasta Plc enjoyed a 5.5 percent rise to (30 pence to 557) while Xstrata Plc, the world fourth-largest copper producer, jumped by 9.3 percent (55 pence to 572.5)

Copper led base metal prices were on a forward march on news that China’s economic growth could be as high as 8 percent in 2009.

Oil was in the news as the BG Group Plc rose 2.3 percent (24 pence to 1,055) after announcing that the company, in conjunction with local partner Petroleo Brasileiro SA, has discovered oil in their Corcovado-1 field, situated off the coast of South America.

The U.K.’s third-biggest software maker Misys Plc announced that their third-quarter revenue had risen by 69 percent. Shares in the company rose by twelve percent (13.5 pence to 129.25.)

On trading yesterday, the FTSE 100 rose by 1.5 percent (58.19 points to 3,983.71).

The FTSE 250 index also rose, this time by 3.88% or 260.5 points to close at 6,978.91

The pound drifted lower on Thursday after the announcement by the Bank of England not to further reduce interest rates. On the news, Sterling fell slightly against the dollar and the Euro and rose slightly against the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc:

Pound/US dollar 1.4664

Pound/Euro 1.1141

Pound/Japanese Yen 147.34

Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6965

Wall Street shares had another strong day on trading

The Dow Jones Average rose 223. Points to close at 8060.12. Nasdaq jumped 53.75 points to close at 1644.35.

US government data released on Thursday showed that the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits actually fell slightly last week, which continued to buoy the stock market, along with news that the country’s trade deficit shrank in February, reaching to its lowest level since November 1999.

Speculation that gold prices will “easily” attain the benchmark $1,000 an ounce level this year and possibly reach as high as $1,100 is gathering strength on the news that investment demand is outstripping surging scrap supplies.