Category Archives: Stock markets

London’s Aim shrinks to smallest since 2001 amid fears of tax relief changes

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UHY Hacker Young says 92 companies have delisted and only 10 floated on junior stock market in past year

The UK’s Alternative Investment Market (Aim) has shrunk to its smallest size in 23 years as business owners and investors anticipate an abolition of inheritance tax relief in the budget this week.

The accountancy group UHY Hacker Young calculated that 92 companies have delisted from Aim, London’s junior stock market, in the past year, reducing the total number of companies on Aim to 695.

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Chinese stocks suffer worst fall in 27 years over growth concerns

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Investors disappointed after hoped-for policy plans by Beijing to stimulate economy failed to materialise

Chinese stocks have suffered their worst fall in 27 years after efforts by Beijing to stimulate the world’s second-largest economy disappointed investors.

Stock markets in Asia fell sharply after China’s top economic planning authority failed to announce further measures to improve flagging growth.

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Stock markets hit record highs after news of a fall in US inflation

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S&P 500 index of major US companies registers near 100% gain on year ago amid expectation of interest rate cuts

A fall in US inflation expected to pave the way for further cuts in interest rates pushed stock markets to record highs on Friday.

Ending a week of gains that began when the Chinese authorities approved a huge economic stimulus package, the S&P 500 index of major US companies soared above 5,750 to register a near 100% gain on a year ago.

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Planned Shein IPO needs closer scrutiny, says former Labour minister

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Trade committee head Liam Byrne wants checks on firm’s possible supply chain links to forced labour

A former minister has called on the government to closely scrutinise Shein for possible links to forced working as the China-founded fast-fashion retailer prepares for a stock market listing in London.

Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who heads parliament’s business and trade committee, said the UK should introduce new legislation to increase scrutiny of supply chains that may include products made in the Xinjiang region of north-western China.

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Mario Draghi warns EU at risk without ‘new industrial strategy’ and €800bn a year investment boost – business live

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‘For the first time since the cold war we must genuinely fear for our self-preservation,’ warns former ECB chief as he presents new report on European competitiveness

We also have worrying signs that the US jobs market is cooling.

The latest UK Report on Jobs from KPMG and REC shows that the UK labour market softened in August, with vacancies falling for both permanent and temporary staff.

“Recent Government warnings that the UK’s economy may weaken further before improving add to the overall sense of uncertainty, affecting recruitment plans. Firms holding back from hiring led to a sharp contraction in the number of people placed into permanent roles in August amid continued decline in demand, extending the downturn in the UK’s labour market.

“The news that while salaries rose last month it was at the weakest rate since March could help make the case for more rate cuts when the [Bank of England’s] Monetary Policy Committee meets to decide the future path of interest rates.

This reflects ongoing concerns in the job market, including falling job vacancies and more people claiming unemployment-related benefits, which reached its highest level since December 2021 according to the Office for National Statistics.

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Rolls-Royce is FTSE 100’s biggest faller as Cathay Pacific inspects A350 fleet

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Shares in engineering firm slide as airline cancels flights after finding engine component failure on aircraft

Shares in Rolls-Royce, the leading British engineering company, were the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 on Monday after Cathay Pacific Airways identified an engine component failure on an aircraft and began inspecting its entire Airbus A350 fleet.

The Hong Kong-based airline, which has cancelled 24 return flights so far while it performs the “precautionary” checks, said a number of aircraft would be out of service for several days. Shares in Rolls-Royce closed down 6%.

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway hits $1tn valuation on Wall Street

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Vast conglomerate becomes the first non-tech company to hit the major stock market milestone

The market value of Berkshire Hathaway surpassed $1tn on Wednesday, reflecting investor confidence in the conglomerate that Warren Buffett built over nearly six decades into what many consider a proxy for the American economy.

Berkshire joined six other companies, mainly from the technology sector, above $1trn: Apple, Nvidia , Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

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Wall Street banker bonuses forecast to rise 35% this year

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Surge caused by rebound in market activity very likely to influence payouts for European outposts of banks

Bonuses for Wall Street’s investment bankers are forecast to jump as much as 35% this year – although experts have warned that payouts could be knocked by stock market volatility and an economic slowdown in the US.

Fresh predictions suggest that staff across a range of financial firms – including hedge funds, asset managers and investment banks – will see payouts rise for the first time in two years. It follows a rebound in business confidence and market activity, with companies more willing to take risks amid easing inflation that has started to translate into lower borrowing costs.

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Global markets partly recover but analysts fear ‘we’re not out of woods’

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Shares on Wall Street and in Asia and Europe start to recover after Monday’s rout

Shares on Wall Street rose and many Asian and European markets staged a recovery after this week’s global stock market rout, but analysts warned: “We might not be out of the woods.”

The FTSE 100 index in London rose 18 points, or 0.2%, on Tuesday to close at 8,026.69, after losing 166 points, or 2%, on Monday, its biggest one-day points drop in more than a year.

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Japanese stocks soar after massive sell-off shook global markets

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Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closes more than 10% up with other Asia markets rebounding on Tuesday

Japanese stocks soared more than 10% on Tuesday, a day after experiencing their biggest fall in 37 years, setting markets tumbling in Europe and on Wall Street.

Other markets in Asia also appeared to settle somewhat after the rollercoaster ride that started the week.

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Wood Group suitor pulls out of takeover, blaming market turmoil

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Shares in FTSE 250 company slump 37% in early trading after Dubai-based Sidara cites geopolitical risk

The share price of the British oil services company John Wood Group has plunged by more than a third after a Dubai-based suitor pulled out of a purchase amid global market turmoil.

In a statement to the stock market on Monday the engineering company Sidara said it had pulled out of a bid for Wood “in light of rising geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty”.

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Shares in New York and London tumble on fears of US recession

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FTSE 100 on track for its lowest close since April and Japan’s Nikkei suffers biggest fall since crash of 1987

Shares on Wall Street and in London have fallen heavily amid a global stock market rout triggered by fears of a recession in the US.

The tech-focused Nasdaq index dropped by 6% as trading in New York opened on Monday, while the broader S&P 500 index fell by 4.2% in a sell-off triggered by weak US jobs data. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 1,100 points, a 2.8% decline.

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ASX loses $160bn in two days as US recession fears prompt sell-off

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Australian share market suffers worst two-day decline since start of pandemic as it tumbles 3.7% on Monday

Australia’s share market has suffered its worst day since the onset of the pandemic as fears of a US recession prompted investors to exit their positions, erasing more than $100bn in value from local stocks.

A sea of red overwhelmed the local market on Monday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index down by 3.7% to 7,649 at the close.

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Fear of US recession rattles global markets as tech shares fall

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Europe’s main indices all decline and Japanese equities suffer worst day since 2020 while gold hits fresh record

Stock markets in Europe, Asia and New York tumbled on Friday as fears of a US economic slump grew and technology shares were hit by underwhelming earnings.

Concerns that the US could be sliding towards a recession spurred a global sell-off, which accelerated after a poor employment report on Friday showed that the US jobs market was cooling fast, pushing up the unemployment rate.

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Chip designer Arm Holdings reports 39% surge in revenue but shares fall

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Even as shares fall about 9%, chief financial officer says firm is seeing ‘more investment’ in AI than ‘even 90 days ago’

Chip designer Arm Holdings on Wednesday reported a stronger-than-expected 39% surge in quarterly revenue, and forecast fiscal second-quarter sales broadly in line with Wall Street estimates, yet its shares fell about 9% in extended trading.

For the current fiscal second quarter, Arm forecast revenue in a range between $780m and $830m, compared with an average analyst estimate of $804.1m, according to LSEG data.

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NatWest takes £24m hit from abandoned ‘Tell Sid’-style campaign

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Bank left with costs from Sir Trevor McDonald-fronted campaign after early election halted rollout

NatWest was forced to spend £24m on the former Conservative government’s aborted “Tell Sid”-style campaign featuring Sir Trevor McDonald, which would have resulted in a chunk of the bank’s state-owned shares being sold to the general public in a highly anticipated privatisation drive.

The price tag emerged when the bank released its second-quarter results and announced it was snapping up a number of mortgages from the smaller rival Metro Bank for £2.4bn.

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Former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable testifies at inquiry into Post Office Horizon scandal – business live

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Cable was business secretary from 2010-15 when the government privatised the Post Office

Cable has agreed with a description of Post Office management as “thugs in suits”, and had a goal of rebalancing the relationship between bosses and subpostmasters during his time in post.

He recounted a story about challenging 8 Post Office closures in his constituency, before he entered government, and being treated poorly by the organisation’s “middle management”.

Mr Bates has, I believe, described them as ‘thugs in suits’ and I recognise the description,” said Cable in his witness statement. “And [the Post Office] dealt with us in an arrogant way when we campaigned against closures.


In my first meeting with Paula Vennells [Post Office chief executive] I suggested this is what the Post Office should do,” he said. “We perhaps should have been more modest and had postmasters on the board, which would have achieved some of our aims, which I think has now happened.

Problems with Horizon barely came across my desk,” he said. “When they did it was usually in a very uncontroversial way and not drawn to my attention as an issue I should focus on. General reason is that the officials who were briefing me and ministers on the subject hadn’t seen it as a particular problem.

In hindsight, I should have been told at the outset what Horizon was,” he said. “That competent people … were suggesting there was a risk factor and I should have been told about Mr Bates and the justice group. I never heard his name until I’d been in the job five years. I wasn’t briefed on them.

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Chip stocks fall further after Trump’s remarks on Taiwan defence

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Semiconductor and related tech shares hit hard by former US president’s calls for Taipei to pay for US protection

The stocks of some of the world’s largest chipmakers have fallen further after comments by Donald Trump that Taiwan, which is central to the global industry, should pay for its own defences against China.

Shares in semiconductor and related tech companies had already plunged on Wednesday after the former president’s comments, as well as a report that suggested Joe Biden’s administration was considering the strictest controls on the trade of chips to China.

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Billionaire Sung Kook ‘Bill’ Hwang convicted of fraud by New York jury

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Archegos Capital Management’s founder guilty of 10 of 11 criminal counts over investment firm that collapsed in 2021

Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang, the Archegos Capital Management founder, was convicted of fraud and other charges by a jury in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. Prosecutors at a criminal trial had accused him of market manipulation ahead of the 2021 collapse of his $36bn private investment firm.

The jury, which began deliberations on Tuesday, found Hwang guilty on 10 of 11 criminal counts and Patrick Halligan, his Archegos deputy and co-defendant, guilty on all three counts he faced. Hwang and Halligan sat flanked by their lawyers as the verdict was read by a soft-spoken foreperson.

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French stock market swings to gain after election surprise; Britvic agrees to improved Carlsberg offer – business live

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Live coverage of business, economics and markets after New Popular Front is largest party in second round of France’s election, with far-right third

The French election has meant that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) will not be in power, but it has not settled what France’s new government will look like.

The New Popular Front (NFP), the hastily arranged coalition of left-wing parties, won the most seats, but it is far short of a parliamentary majority. The result will mean a lot of negotiation to agree on who will be the new prime minister – let alone on achieving anything meaningful in governing the country.

The French parliament is more divided than ever, made up mainly of three blocs (Left – 182 seats, Centre – 168 seats, Extreme Right – 143 seats) and a number of smaller ones. As we predicted before the elections, no bloc can claim an absolute majority.

Minority government

French political parties “are not used to making concessions in order to create a programme around a coalition with other parties”, and the NFP’s most prominent figure, Jean-Luc Mélenchon demanded its entire programme be implemented. “If political parties maintain such positions, a long period of instability will ensue,” said Ledent.

Learning to cooperate

“Excluding the 80 MPs from the far left and the 145 from the far right, there are over 350 MPs left to form a broad coalition ready to reform France, taking into account the diversity of opinions. In other European countries, including Germany, such a configuration would be quite natural and would result in a government with a clear majority.

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