British software firm Autonomy said it was confident there was upside for earnings consensus for 2011, even after organic growth slowed in the third-quarter as some contracts were delayed. The company, whose software searches and organises unstructured information such as emails, phone conversations, documents and video, reported a 10 percent rise in revenue to $211m,…
World stocks hit a two year high on Thursday, touching levels not seen since September 2008 just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Emerging market stocks led the way, touching levels not seen since June 2008. MSCI’s all-country world index, a leading benchmark used by professional investors, was up 0.8 percent in the day at…
Japan has called into question South Korea’s leadership of the Group of 20 forum because of Seoul’s interventions to stem the won’s rise and insisted its own currency action was qualitatively different. “As chair of the G20, South Korea’s role will be seriously questioned,” Yoshihiko Noda told a parliamentary panel when asked about South Korea’s…
Hong Kong stocks rose to a 2010 high on October 6 as investors poured money into local assets on expectations of another round of asset purchases by the US Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy weakened the dollar. Mainland banking shares, which have a large weighting on the benchmark index, joined the rally after sharply…
The Bank of Japan has pledged to pump more funds into the struggling economy and keep interest rates at virtually zero, surprising markets and stealing a march on the Federal Reserve in providing a fresh dose of economic stimulus. For months, the central bank had eschewed government calls for more decisive action, such as buying…
General Motors Co posted an annual sales gain of 10.5 percent in September amid evidence that the U.S. auto market remained stuck in a slow-moving recovery at the start of the fourth quarter. GM was the first of the major U.S. automakers to report sales for the month. Analysts and industry executives expect auto sales…
Iraq has signed multi-billion deals with oil firms to boost output capacity to 12 million barrels a day in seven years. This could give Iraq the money to rebuild after decades of war, sanctions and economic degradation, opening opportunities to the banking sector in financing projects. Today, Iraqi banks are hardly lending to private companies…
Switzerland, at risk of losing its crown as the world’s top wealth management hub to Singapore, is seeking a deal on billions of dollars of untaxed money hidden at its banks, under pressure from cash-strapped foreign nations. Last year Europe and the US, hungry for tax revenues after numerous bank bailouts, forced Switzerland to weaken…
The Nikkei average clawed up 0.7 percent on Wednesday on window-dressing before the end of Japan’s financial first half, but it pared earlier gains as the yen’s strength revived and resistance held strong. An additional boost came from a poor December outlook in the Bank of Japan’s “tankan” survey of business sentiment, which some market…
The Lloyd’s of London insurance market revealed that record claims from disasters including the Chilean earthquake and US oil spill halved its profits, and said it saw no respite from a steady decline in prices. Lloyd’s, which traces its origins back 322 years to a London coffee house where wealthy merchants insured ships, has posted…
