Good afternoon. Kingfisher’s management may have been keen on buying Mr Bricolage, a chain of French DIY stores, but it seems its owners (or the market) wasn’t so sure.
The owner of B&Q has been forced to abandon the €275 million acquisition today after Mr Bricolage’s franchisees, who control a substantial stake in the deal, expressed opposition. Shares in Kingfisher top the FTSE 100 leaderboard, on the back of the news, up 2.7 per cent.
Banks have been told to prepare for a global financial crisis resulting from a major slowdown in the world’s largest emerging market economies, including China and Brazil, that would cause their largest business customers to collapse.
The Bank of England said lenders must model a crisis in which Britain suffers the worst deflation since the mid-1930s with the economy shrinking by 2.3 per cent this year, despite interest rates being cut to zero. Harry Wilson, our City Editor, has more here.
Banks and building societies handed out mortgages at the fastest pace in six months in February, despite uncertainty surrounding the forthcoming election. The number of mortgage approvals rose to 61,760 in February, up from 60,707 in January, according to the Bank of England. Kathryn Hopkins, our Property Correspondent, has the details here.
Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter for updates throughout the day - @fletcherr.
Richard Fletcher
Business Editor
The Times
richard.fletcher@thetimes.co.uk
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The stock market has made a decent start to the week as investors continued to bet on help for the world’s two biggest economies from their respective central banks.
On Friday, comments by Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, were taken as a signal that American interest rates would rise but gradually this year, should the Fed act. Later, the People’s Bank of China hinted at impending economic support.
In London, the Footsie has rallied 30 points from last week’s sharp sell-off, to 6,885. Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q, is leading the way, up 11p at 369p after its €275 million takeover of Mr Bricolage, a French rival, collapsed.
However, CRH is 24p lower at £17.64 on suggestions of yet more shareholder resistance to the proposed merger of France’s Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim. The Irish aggregates business is in line to pick up assets from the merged group to ease their deal past regulators.
Gary Parkinson
Market Reporter
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Denmark led the EU for labour costs in 2014, according to Eurostat.
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It’s a relatively busy week leading up to Easter with the IPO of Go-Daddy, the web-hosting firm, and car and truck sales data scheduled for midweek. The latest nonfarm jobs numbers are out on Friday and are expected to be strong(ish), but possibly reflecting a slight softness in recent economic data. Don’t forget that markets in New York are closed on Friday.
Consumer spending data for February out today at 1.30pm BST is expected to have increased by only 0.1 per cent, adjusted for inflation, with the low reading being attributed to winter weather. Core PCE price inflation is expected to come in at 0.2 per cent for the month, pushing up year-on-year inflation to 1.4 per cent.
The National Association of Realtors puts out its Pending Home Sales index for February at 3pm BST today. The index measures housing contract activity and is based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condominiums and co-ops. Improved buyer demand at the beginning of 2015 pushed up the January reading by 1.7 per cent to 104.2, the highest level since August 2013. Analysts expect a more modest gain of 0.4 per cent for February.
Markets: Futures suggest a positive day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones is expected to open up 101 points at 17,727, the S&P to rise 11.25 points to 2,063.75, and the Nasdaq to grow 32.50 points to 4,358.25.
Alexandra Frean
US Business Editor
@freanie
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PwC's review has identified that certain ... accounting policies ... were largely acceptable but are at the aggressive end of acceptable practice
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Quindell on the findings of a report by the accountancy firm into the insurance outsourcer
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Up (%) |
Kingfisher |
2.73 |
Ashtead Group |
2.33 |
ARM Holdings |
1.76 |
RSA Insurance |
1.60 |
London Stock Exchange Group |
1.57 |
* As at noon |
|
|
|
|
Down (%) |
BG Group |
-2.84 |
Smiths Group |
-2.15 |
WM Morrison Supermarkets |
-1.46 |
SSE |
-1.42 |
CRH |
-1.28 |
* As at noon |
|
|
FTSE 100 |
6,879.62 |
0.36% |
FTSE 250 |
17,213.80 |
0.3% |
Cac |
5,091.27 |
1.14% |
Dax |
12,041.59 |
1.46% |
Brent Crude |
56.52 |
-1.33% |
Gold |
1,187.05 |
-1.06% |
GBP/US |
1.4804 |
-0.48% |
GBP/euro |
1.3665 |
0.07% |
10Y Gilt |
131.663 |
-0.05% |
* As at noon |
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