Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying
Top stories
The Times: EDF edged closer to
an £11 billion ($22 billion) takeover of British Energy as Centrica, the
owner of British Gas, resumed talks to take a 25 per cent stake.
New York Times: Amazon, the online retailer, doubled
its profit in the second-quarter to $158 million (£79 million), and its
shares rose 8 per cent but then fell back.
Telegraph: Vodafone will begin an immediate £1 billion ($2 billion) share
buyback program, just after its stock crashed on a revenue warning.
Comment
Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: Abandoning Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s
flawed public borrowing rules is no
great loss , but bad rules are better than none at all.
Jonathan Guthrie in the Financial Times: The joint stock company, an
enduring British invention, has been cut
down to size by corporations but will always make a comeback.
Mark Gilbert in Bloomberg: A quick test can quickly
separate optimists and pessimists: the first buy iPhones and the latter
hoard gold.
Upside
The Times: Volkswagen and Peugeot Citroën, Europe’s top two carmakers,
posted better-than-expected results while General Motors looks set
to lose its title as the world’s biggest carmarker.
Reuters: The city of San Diego has filed
a lawsuit against bank of America and plans others to stop mortgage
lenders foreclosing on homes to create a “foreclosure sanctuary”.
The Times: The football pools will be relaunched as the three games are merged
into one under new owner Sportech.
Downside
The Times: The number of loans approved
for house purchases fell 67 per cent in the past year to the lowest
figure since records began in 1997.
Telegraph: Ernst & Young, one of the “Big Four” accountancy firms, will delay
taking on some university leavers to whom it had promised jobs because
of market conditions.
The Times: Moscow has topped the list of the world’s most
expensive cities for the third year running, while London was edged out
of second place by Tokyo.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second-largest pharmaceuticals
group, will divide its R&D into
smaller groups and has formed an alliance to target emerging markets.
New York Times: To end a legal battle, Nokia will pay
royalties to Qualcomm, the wireless technology developer, for 15 years
– some predict $400 million (£200 million) next year.
Financial Times: Kevin Johnson, the Microsoft senior executive who
headed its failed bid for Yahoo!, has unexpectedly
departed the company.
Around Asia
Bloomberg: Baidu.com, China's most-used Internet search engine, posted
an 87 per cent jump in
second-quarter profit and its shares surged 13 per cent.
Financial Times: Liu Mingkang, China’s top banking regulator, has
ordered the nation’s state-owned commercial banks to tighten
lending criteria .
Nikkei: A real estate firm linked with Mizuho Financial Group plans to
spend 300 billion yen (£1.4 billion, $2.8 billion) to buy about 40 large
office buildings.
Look ahead
Bloomberg: Japanese carmakers Honda, Nissan and Toyota are all expected
to report lower profits when they
report on Friday, August 1 and August 7, respectively.
Reuters: Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank, is likely to make a sizable
asset sale within weeks, not months, according to analysts at UBS.
New York Times: Motor fuel made
from garbage has been pushed along by high oil prices and the first
commercial sales could happen within months.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,449.90 up 1.6% (Wednesday close)
Dow 11,632.38 up 0.3% (close)
S&P 500 1,282.19 up 0.3% (close)
Nasdaq 2,325.88 up 1% (close)
Nikkei 13,481.71 up 1.3% (latest)
Hang Seng 23,159.34 up 0.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.9977/1.273 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5692 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $124.33 down 11 cents (latest)
Gold $920.90 down $1.90 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose on the
back of a rescue plan for mortgage giants Fannie Mae (up 11.9 per
cent) and Freddie Mac (up 11.3 per cent) and falling oil prices.
After the bell, online retailer Amazon posted strong profits that saw
its shares rise 8 per cent but they quickly traded down to be 2 per cent
below their closing price. Oil companies fell, with Exxon dropping
2.3 per cent. Shares in planemaker Boeing fell 3.7 per cent after it
reported a bigger-than-expected drop in profit. AT&T, the largest
US telecommunications company, jumped 3.9 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks
advanced for a fourth day and look set for the best week in 11 months.
Carmakers led the rise, with Honda up 2.7 per cent and Toyota
up 3.3 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.9 per cent in morning
trade, with about five stocks gaining for each that declined.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
HBOS shares rose more than 16 per cent amid a general rally in banks
and on talk of bid interest from Spanish rival BBVA.
Sceptics said the rumour was convenient for HBOS underwriters Morgan Stanley
and Dresdner Kleinwort, which have been left with a lot of HBOS stock to
sell in the market. HBOS rose 44p to 305p. There was also a feeling that,
with Wachovia and Washington Mutual unveiling big losses in the US but
saying they did not need new funds, the worst of the credit crunch for the
banks may be over and it was time to sell mining stocks and buy banks.
Barclays rose 12 per cent and Royal Bank of Scotland 11 per
cent. Friends Provident rose 13 per cent after Goldman Sachs, which
is advising it, rated it a conviction buy on the potential for disposals.
Ferrexpo, the iron ore miner in Ukraine, was the biggest mining victim,
down 4 per cent. On Tuesday it said Ukraine cost inflation rose 29 per cent
in the first half. Iron ore prices have risen faster but may not for much
longer.
Robert Lindsay
robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
INTERIMS
ACC
BG Group (Q2)
Capita Group
Invesco
Lombard Medical Technologies
Rathbone Brothers
Rolls-Royce
Yell Group (Q1)
FINALS
Aquarius Platinum (Q4)
Misys
AGMs
Alterian
BSS Group
Clyde Process Solutions
CSS Stellar
De La Rue
JJB Sports
BP Marsh & Partners
Oriel Resources
PSG Solutions
Publishing Technology
Record
Scottish & Southern Energy
Shanks Group
SSL International
Synergy Healthcare
Tangent Communications
Timestrip
UMECO
Victoria
EGMs
CSS Stellar
PRODUCTION REPORT
Aquarius Platinum (Q4)
TRADING STATEMENTS
Imperial Tobacco
Kingfisher (Q2)
Synergy Healthcare
ECONOMICS
UK June retail sales (0930 BST)
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