Portfolio

Weekly Review

Date: Friday 06 Jul 2012

The FTSE 100 closed up 92 points on the week at 5,663 points.

Equity view

Marcus Agius, the Chairman of UK banking group Barclays announced his resignation on Monday, following the revelation last week that the bank had been found guilty of manipulating interbank lending rates.

AstraZeneca (AZN) has said that it will benefit from Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMS's) acquisition of Amylin Pharmaceuticals as it strengthens the leadership position of its diabetes alliance with BMS in a 'growing area of high unmet medical need'.

Lord Colin Sharman has retired as Chairman of troubled insurance giant Aviva; he’s being replaced by John McFarlane, who has become Executive Chairman.

Just one day after the Chairman of Barclays resigned over last week's Libor scandal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Diamond has called it quits, bowing in to intense pressure from angry politicians over the last few days.

Barclays’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jerry del Missier quit on Tuesday, leaving the bank’s boardroom looking a little empty following the resignation of both its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer over the last few days.

Tullow Oil expects revenues in the first half of 2012 to set a new record and said that it remains well-placed for continued success for the rest of the year.

Global engineering firm GKN said it had agreed to buy Volvo's aero engine division and would turn to institutional investors to raise money to help pay for it.

Mining group Xstrata has adjourned the extraordinary general meeting at which shareholders were to vote on the recommended merger with Glencore International until a later date.

Having promised on Thursday that it would raise money from disposals, insurance giant Aviva has moved quickly to act on that pledge by saying it will sell more of its stake in Delta Lloyd than originally intended.

Economic news

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that a review into the way that interbank lending rates are determined is to take place, following last week’s revelation that Barclays had been manipulating Libor for its own benefit.

The UK Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the month of June has come in at 48.2, down from 54.4 in May. The consensus estimate had been for a reading of 53.0.

Shop prices rose at their slowest pace in two-and-a-half years in June, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Overall shop price inflation slowed to 1.1% from 1.5% in May as retailers were aided in their efforts to get cagey consumers through the door by falling commodity prices.

Business sentiment has slumped to its lowest level so far this year as the Eurozone debt crisis and the prospect of a post-Olympics lull weigh on confidence. The Purchasing Managers' Index for the service sector, which makes up the lion's share of the UK economy, dropped to an eight-month low of 51.3 in June.

Policy makers at the Bank of England are pumping another £50bn into the economy to give it a kickstart. The decision to increase the Bank's asset purchase scheme, which now stands at a total of £375bn, was widely expected after a raft of bad economic news in the UK and ongoing troubles in the Eurozone. The Bank's benchmark interest rate was left at the historically low level of 0.5%.

International events

The HSBC PMI for the Chinese manufacturing sector fell from 48.4 to 48.2 points in the month of June, the eighth consecutive monthly decline. The second-quarter average was the lowest since the first quarter of 2009.

The Eurozone’s unemployment rate rose to 11.1% in May, the highest since the creation of the Eurozone, according to the latest data from the region’s statistics office, Eurostat.

The HSBC/Markit China services sector PMI for the month of June came in at 52.3; after 54.7 in the month before, when it reached a 19-month peak. That marks the slowest growth rate in 10 months.

Manchester United has revealed its financial strategy for keeping up with its wealthy neighbours, an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York stock exchange.

France is planning to raise €7.2bn in additional taxes on the rich and large companies, President Francois Hollande announced on Wednesday as part of his 2012 budget.

German car giant Volkswagen (VW) has announced that it will be signing off on a takeover agreement with Porsche on August 1st, two years before originally planned.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) surprised markets on Thursday announcing that it is cutting its benchmark interest rate for the second time in two months in an effort to counter a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has cuts its key interest rate in a bid to boost struggling Eurozone economies. The rate will fall from 1% to 0.75%, while the bank's deposit rate - the rate of return banks get for leaving money with the ECB overnight - will be cut to zero.

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