Europe’s largest bank HSBC (HSBA) has revealed plans to slash up to 15% of its workforce over the next three years after earnings more than halved in the year to 31 December. Despite a 4% increase in revenue, net profits slid 53% to just $6bn from $12.6bn as the bank took a $7.3bn write-down on its investment banking and commercial banking units in Europe and a $2.8bn charge for bad ...

Shares in global banking giant HSBC (HSBA) were the worst performer on the FTSE 100 on Tuesday, losing 6% to 555p after it reported a 53% fall in full year profits and revealed it would lay off 35,000 staff. Although group revenues were up 4% to $56bn last year, a combination of higher operating costs – up 22% to $42.3bn due to a goodwill write-off of $7.3bn – and higher provisions for ...

Asian markets were lower on Tuesday with tech stocks hit by Apple's warning that it would miss its sales guidance this quarter due to lower production and sales in China owing to the impact of the coronavirus. Although the UK market doesn't have a big weighting in tech stocks, the FTSE 100 index reflected the weak mood in Asia losing 0.9% to 7,363 led by financial and commodity ...

Payouts to shareholders from UK-listed companies rose over 6% last year to a record £81bn, according to the latest Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index. The increase was boosted by big special payments from miners BHP (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO), as well as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). But when stripping out the special payouts, as well as currency fluctuations, underlying UK dividend ...

There is a saying that a good start in January means the year as a whole is likely to see positive returns. Looking at the history of the FTSE 100 since its inception in 1984, seven of the index’s 10 best years came when it got off to a flyer in January and seven of its 10 worst showings came after a drop in the first month of the year. Investors could be forgiven for fearing the worst ...

UK mid-cap stocks powered ahead on 'Brexit day' with the FTSE 250 index gaining 86 points or 0.4% to 21,378. The pound also gained to €1.19, which is good for domestic stocks. Meanwhile the FSTE 100 was down 0.3% or 25 points to 7,362 as Asian-exposed stocks including Diageo (DGE), HSBC (HSBA), Rio Tinto (RIO) and Standard Chartered (STAN) weighed on the index. US tech shares advanced ...

How low can you go? Typically asked during a game of limbo, it has been a question increasingly posed by investors in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Pitched as a simple way to invest at a cheaper price than using the services of a fund manager, ETFs can invest in stocks for a charge as low as 0.04%, equating to 4p for every £100 invested. That figure could get even smaller as the price war ...

UK blue chip shares have tumbled this morning as investors end the year on a cautious note. It mirrors last night’s moves on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 closed 0.6% down and the Nasdaq Composite 0.7% down. Not helping London’s leading basket of stocks, which is exporter-heavy, is a strengthening of the pound against the dollar to $1.3132. At around 8.50am, the benchmark FTSE ...

More than a fifth (22) of FTSE 100 companies have either changed their chief executive this year or announced plans to do so next year. So what’s causing this turmoil at the top? ‘The FTSE 100 has not really gone anywhere for two years excluding dividends so individual CEOs have been under more pressure from investors,’ says Patrick Thomas, an investment director at Canaccord Genuity ...

Shares in high-street banks Barclays (BARC), Lloyds (LLOY), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Virgin Money (VMUK) rocketed on 13 December after the landslide Conservative victory in the general election. The banks were in demand amid expectations of higher bond yields due to Tory promises of higher public spending. Higher bond yields are seen as necessary for banks to increase their net ...

It feels like we are at a major turning point for markets. This year has been dominated by concerns about the US/China trade war, a slowdown in the global economy, Brexit and whether equity markets have peaked. Next year it feels like we could get more clarity over the trade war and Brexit which in turn might help to provide some answers over the direction of the global economy and how ...

Planning for paying for a care home isn’t a fun prospect, but with annual costs running to tens of thousands of pounds, it is smart to be prepared. Here’s our guide to care fees and how to invest to pay for them. WHEN DO YOU HAVE TO PAY? Anyone with savings or assets worth more than £23,250 will likely have to pay towards their care costs. Your property will be counted in this ...

The basic principle of value investing is buying stocks on low valuations and waiting for them to re-rate. Warren Buffett calls it buying a dollar of earnings for 50 cents, or in the case of UK stocks buying £1 of assets for 50p. In theory this makes a lot of sense; in practice, it’s far from simple and in today’s market not a lot of stocks sell for 50p on the pound. Value investing has ...

What do recovery funds do, what is their appeal and what do they invest in? In simple terms a recovery stock is a share which has fallen in price but is seen as having the potential of climbing back or even exceeding its previous level. This recovery would usually be achieved through a change of strategy or perhaps efforts to repair a broken balance sheet and would often be accompanied or ...

The term ‘consensus’ is usually used to describe a broadly-accepted opinion or decision among a group of people. When applied to company earnings, it refers to the average of a collection of analysts’ forecasts. According to the efficient market hypothesis theory, made popular in the 1970s by economist Eugene Fama, market prices should reflect all available, relevant information including ...

As Brexit uncertainty is prolonged, the banks seem to be stumbling out of one storm into another. Fears of a spike in charges for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) were well-founded as three of the big high-street lenders increased their provisions at the third quarter point due to the last-minute rush of claims ahead of the 31 August deadline. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) put ...

Shares in emerging market-focused bank Standard Chartered (STAN) rallied 3.5% to a four-month high of 719.2p after it delivered a stronger than expected third quarter trading update. Given the disturbances in Hong Kong, the bank’s biggest market, third quarter trading was resilient with underlying pre-tax profits growing 16% to $1.24bn, well ahead of analysts’ expectations which were for ...

Heavyweight bank HSBC (HSBA) is dragging on the FSTE 100 today after a poor third quarter update and an admission that its 2020 return target is no longer realistic. Shares in the global bank fell 4% to 593p, the biggest loser on the FTSE 100 index. As well as rising provisions across the bank for credit losses, the Global Banking and Markets unit had another weak quarter with revenues ...

UK stocks eased back after last week’s strong finish, with the FTSE 100 index giving up 21 points or 0.3% to 7,303. Banks, Household Goods, Mobile Telecoms and Tobacco were the sectors weighing the most on the index. Global banking giant HSBC (HSBA) delivered a disappointing third quarter earnings update, with profits down 24% to $3bn, and abandoned its Return on Tangible Equity target of ...

UK stocks started the week on the back foot as concerns over corporate earnings started to surface ahead of the third-quarter reporting season. The FTSE 100 index of leading stocks gave up 14 points or 0.2% to 7,139 with Aerospace, Banks, Insurers and Metals Producers lagging. Propping up the index were Healthcare stocks and Oil Producers, the latter thanks to a small bounce in Brent crude ...