Centrica says that household demand for gas and electricity during the cold snap was the reason it has beaten City expectations with a 29% rise in annual profit to a record £2.3 billion... more
Energy giant Centrica claims the policy of developing its upstream wholesale gas business is paying off, as it posts a 65% hike in half-year operating profit to £1.6 billion... more
The freezing start to the year saw households turn up the heating and using 7% more gas than 2009, helping British Gas enjoy a roaring profit, owner Centrica says... more
Leading shares posted their fifth consecutive day of gains in another thin trading session as City investors tackled a clutch of results from blue-chip companies
... more
The Deal is back. Kraft’s unsolicited £10 billion bid for Cadbury. The merger of T-Mobile and Orange to form Britain’s largest mobile phone operator. Investment bankers are slavering after 18 months of what former senior Tory Alan Duncan might term “living on rations”
... more
Some City brokers still have issues about Barclays and the apparent ease with which it has escaped the fallout from the banking meltdown which engulfed its rivals... more
Venture Production, the North Sea gas developer on the end of a £1.3 billion hostile takeover from British Gas group Centrica, admitted today one of its blockbuster hopes will not happen ... more
Shares rallied from opening falls after several billion pounds' worth of takeovers were dangled in front of City speculators in order to whet their appetites ... more
Shares were on the slide again today despite several billion pounds' worth of takeovers being dangled in front of City speculators in order to whet their appetites... more
Venture Production was today forced by the Takeover Panel to clarify that, contrary to weekend reports, it is not holding out for an offer of £10 a share, though two of its main shareholders are... more
A brief flurry of speculative buying saw shares of Dana Petroleum strike a high for the day of 1470p as talk whizzed around the Square Mile that a bid was on the way... more
Trading got under way in Rio Tinto's nil-paid shares today after its announcement a couple of weeks ago that it would raise £8.8 billion by way of a 21-for-40 rights issue at 1400p. ... more
Stock-market bears were continuing to feel the squeeze today as they rushed to cover any remaining open short positions following yesterday’s announcement of a $1 trillion rescue package for America’s banks... more
Legal & General was the biggest blue-chip casualty today, losing 3.5p to 41.4p ahead of results tomorrow that are expected to produce a cut in the payout to shareholders.... more
Speculation that a major new gas field has been found in the North Sea is believed to be behind what could be a £1.25 billion hostile takeover of Venture Production by Centrica... more
Energy analysis: The oil price tide has never gone out so far and so fast. Oil and gas exploration stocks have sunk. And the hedge fund sharks who fuelled the sector have lost their teeth.... more
Stock-market bears, who have been selling the life assurers aggressively short in recent weeks, claiming they would be the next casualties of the banking crisis, were feeling the pain today as their shares soared.... more
The oil and gas sector was set alight after Centrica parked its tanks on the North Sea gas platforms of Venture Production, and unloved African explorer BowLeven received a takeover offer valuing it at more than treble its London-quoted price... more
Cairn Energy is looking to raise an extra £120 million to help build pipelines to transport the vast oil reserves it has in India's Rajasthan region... more
Taylor Wimpey's fall from grace among stock-market investors will be completed by the close of business tonight when its shares drop out of the Footsie 250 index ... more
The big High Street banks took another tonking, leaving investors who this summer took up or underwrote £16 billion of rights issues from HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland nursing hefty losses... more
Afternoon:
8°c
