The_Times__6_March_2020

the times | Friday March 6 2020 2GM 49

MarketsBusiness

Exchange rates

Bank buys Bank sells

Australia $ 2.115 1.840

Canada $ 1.862 1.618

Denmark Kr 9.255 8.114

Egypt n/a n/a

Euro ¤ 1.258 1.101

Hong Kong $ 10.701 9.411

Hungary 425.216 349.836

Indonesia 20,814.8 16,603.0

Israel Shk 4.865 4.151

Japan Yen 148.692 128.775

New Zealand $ 2.282 1.930

Norway Kr 12.925 11.172

Poland 5.462 4.475

Russia 91.337 76.057

S Africa Rd 21.791 18.454

Sweden Kr 13.005 11.562

Switzerland Fr 1.347 1.161

Turkey Lira 8.775 7.508

USA $ 1.398 1.227

Rates for banknotes as traded by Royal Bank of

Scotland plc yesterday

Dollar rates

Australia 1.5168-1.5169

Canada 1.3419-1.3421

Denmark 6.6663-6.6668

Euro 0.8925-0.8925

Hong Kong 7.7736-7.7741

Japan 106.33-106.34

Malaysia 4.1595-4.1625

Norway 9.2925-9.2985

Singapore 1.3857-1.3860

Sweden 9.4507-9.4542

Switzerland 0.9476-0.9480

Other Sterling

Argentina peso 80.800-80.804

Australia dollar 1.9633-1.9636

Bahrain dinar 0.4841-0.4910

Brazil real 6.0220-6.0258

Euro 1.1551-1.1553

Hong Kong dollar 10.062-10.064

India rupee 95.566-95.572

Indonesia rupiah 18303-18417

Kuwait dinar KD 0.3947-0.3970

Malaysia ringgit 5.3845-5.3883

New Zealand dollar 2.0551-2.0557

Singapore dollar 1.7935-1.7940

S Africa rand 20.214-20.226

U A E dirham 4.7506-4.7532

Money rates %

Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.75 ECB Refi 0.00 US Fed Fd 1.00-1.25

Halifax Mortgage Rate 4.24

Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.737; 3 mth 0.649. Sell: 1 mth 0.629; 3 mth 0.590

1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth

Interbank Rates 0.5066 0.4868 0.5030 0.5045 0.5853

Clearer CDs 0.80-0.70 0.84-0.74 0.88-0.78 0.97-0.82 1.04-0.89

Depo CDs 0.80-0.70 0.84-0.74 0.88-0.78 0.97-0.82 1.04-0.89

Eurodollar Deps 0.85-1.05 0.85-1.05 0.84-1.04 0.81-1.01 0.87-1.20

Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month

Copenhagen 8.6092-8.6652 8.6285-8.6299 122ds 289ds

Euro 1.1598-1.1524 1.1553-1.1552 9pr 24pr

Montreal 1.7227-1.7370 1.7370-1.7372 9pr 27pr

New York 1.2861-1.2945 1.2944-1.2945 7pr 17pr

Oslo 11.902-12.030 12.030-12.036 98pr 291pr

Stockholm 12.174-12.247 12.230-12.240 60ds 168ds

Tokyo 137.64-138.56 137.64-137.65 13ds 33ds

Zurich 1.2265-1.2335 1.2265-1.2267 16ds 45ds

Premium = pr Discount = ds

Sterling spot and forward rates

London Grain Futures
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)
Mar 151.00 May 150.50 Jul unq
Nov 161.00 Jan unq Volume: 575

London Metal Exchange
(Official)

Cash 3mth Dec 19

Copper Gde A ($/tonne)
5667.0-5667.5 5687.0-5688.0 5785.0-5795.0

Lead ($/tonne)
1855.0-1860.0 1825.0-1826.0 1858.0-1863.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)
2001.0-2002.0 2018.0-2018.5 2080.0-2085.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne)
1714.0-1715.0 1725.0-1726.0 1843.0-1848.0

Nickel ($/tonne)
12780.0-12800.0 12810.0-12815.0 13160.0-13210.0

Tin ($/tonne) 15mth
16975.0-17000.0 16975.0-17000.0 16880.0-16930.0

Gold/Precious

metals (US dollars per ounce)

European money

deposits %

Currency

1mth 3mth 6mth 12mth

Dollar

0.13 0.20 0.29 0.55

Sterling

0.51 0.50 0.50 0.59

Euro

0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50

Bullion: Open $1637.21

Close $1665.01-1665.47 High $1665.01

Low $1635.89

AM $1647.15 PM $1658.46

Krugerrand $1648.00-1737.00 (£1273.13-

1341.88)

Platinum $868.73 (£671.12)

Silver $17.38 (£13.42)

Palladium $2549.19 (£1969.32)

Data as shown is

for information

purposes only. No offer is made by

Morningstar or this publication

H

ouse of Holland,
the east London-
based fashion
label, has called in
administrators as it
looks for “additional
investment” to

continue trading. The

business was started by

Henry Holland, 36,

above, as a Paypal link

on his Myspace page

when he was a fashion

editor for teenage

magazines.

He gained fame with

T-shirts bearing slogans

such as “I’ll Tell You

Who’s Boss Kate Moss”

and “Let’s breed Bella

Hadid”, promoted by

and BHP Group was marked down

93½p, or 6.2 per cent, to £14.06.

The FTSE 250 was a sea of red too,

with the mid-cap index losing 419.70

points, or 2.1 per cent, to 19,323.13.

Some big institutional investors,

have rules which mean that they can

only hold shares in companies listed

in the FTSE 350. Restaurant Group,

owner of Frankie & Benny’s, and

Tullow Oil were among the laggards

after it was confirmed on Wednesday

night that, like Finablr, they will also

be demoted from the index later this

month. Shares in Restaurant Group

fell 10p, or 10.8 per cent, to 83p while

Tullow Oil lost 3¾p, or 11.8 per cent,

to hit a new record low of 27¾p.

But one of their replacements,

Petropavlovsk, found itself in high

demand. The gold miner has almost

trebled in value over the past year,

enough for it to be included in the

FTSE 250 for the first time in eight

years at the upcoming reshuffle. Its

run continued as it added another

1¼p, or 6.0 per cent, to 22p.

SAMIR HUSSEIN/GETTY IMAGES

Finablr looks to investors

to change its fortunes

Tom Howard Market report

F

inablr shares tumbled to new

record lows despite desperate

attempts by the owner of

Travelex to distance itself

from NMC Health, the

troubled hospitals group, and the

Indian billionaire BR Shetty.

The company has lost more than

three quarters of its value since the

beginning of December when the

short-seller Muddy Waters published

a scathing report about NMC.

Finablr and NMC were both set up

by Mr Shetty, who has pledged big

chunks of shares in both companies

as collateral for loans that he and his

associates have taken out. As a result,

neither company is sure who owns

shares or how many and they have

pressed Mr Shetty for answers.

According to a Bloomberg report,

the Finablr board is looking at options

to rebuild its battered share price.

One possibility is to try to bring in

new investors, while it is also thought

to be exploring a take-private deal.

Finablr’s foreign exchange

businesses are suffering from the

coronavirus outbreak, which has

dented demand for overseas holidays,

meaning that fewer people are

changing up their money. This month

bosses warned that this, together with

a recent cyberattack that crippled

Travelex for almost two months,

would hit first-quarter profits by

around £25 million.

Finablr stock, which floated at 175p

a share less than a year ago, fell 8p, or

16.0 per cent, to 41¼p, leaving the

business valued at just £290 million. It

will be booted out of the FTSE 250 at

the quarterly reshuffle this month.

Having initially promised a fourth

consecutive day of gains, the

FTSE 100 quickly slipped into reverse,

closing the session 110.16 points, or 1.6

per cent, down at 6,705.43.

Despite the current bull market

being the longest in history, at just

over a decade, the recent correction

means that the Footsie is no better off

than it was in 1999. In a sign of the

“risk-off’ attitude of traders, the

rotation into consumer staples stocks

— those which make goods that

people need regardless of how the

economy is performing — continued.

British American Tobacco, the

maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes,

climbed 40½p, or 1.3 per cent, to

£32.45 and its rival, Imperial Brands,

the owner of the Rizla brand, nudged

14¼p, or 0.9 per cent, higher to £16.58.

Reckitt Benckiser, which makes

Strepsils and Nurofen, inched up by

40p, or 0.7 per cent, to £61.40.

Holding the blue-chips back were

the big-name miners reliant on a

growing global economy to guzzle up

their raw materials. Evraz, the

Russian iron ore producer, slumped

by 39p, or 11.9 per cent, to 289¼p, Rio

Tinto, the Anglo-Australian giant,

gave up 280½p, 7.1 per cent, to £36.49

Happy finding for Lucan’s firm

natural resources

A

n oil and gas

company run

by Lord Lucan,

son of the infamous

peer, was given a

welcome boost from a

gasfield formerly

owned by Gazprom,

one of the world’s

largest gas producers.

Angus Energy,

whose managing

director is George

Lucan, 52, said that its

51 per cent stake in

the Saltfleetby field in

Lincolnshire is worth

about £25 million,

according to a third-

party analysis of the

asset. That is the base

case; Saltfleetby could

be worth £35 million

to Angus if everything

falls in its favour — a

big deal for a

company with a

market capitalisation

of £5.4 million.

Oilfield

International, which

produced the

competent persons

report, estimates there

is 16 billion cubic feet

of gas underfoot at the

project as well as

97,000 barrels of

condensate.

Angus will probably

have to spend about

£1.5 million, which

would allow it to start

producing gas this

year. That would also

fund the drilling of

another well in 2021.

Gazprom, through

its Wingas subsidiary,

gave Angus a 51 per

cent stake in the field

last year and

contributed

£2.5 million towards

the cost of

reconnecting the

project to the National

Gas Grid. The shares

rose 0.1p, or 11.8 per

cent, to just under 1p.

George Lucan is

managing director

of Angus Energy

Wall Street report

The midweek bounce was shortlived

as indices resumed their falls over

the spread of coronavirus and the

damage it could inflict on economic

growth. The Dow Jones industrial

average fell by 969.58 points, or 3.6

per cent, to 26,121.28.

Company Change
Spirent Comms Results were better than the City had expected 17.4%
CLS Holdings Analysts were full of praise for full-year results 3.3%
Page Group Coronavirus impact not as bad as some had feared 3.1%
AG Barr Shares recover some of recent losses 2.8%
Admiral Group Announced a record pre-tax profit of £526.1 million 2.6%
ITV Warned that coronavirus would hit ad revenue by at least 10 per cent in April -12.0%
Cineworld Analysts are worried that more film releases will be delayed -13.0%
Premier Oil Pre-tax profits fell by a third last year -14.4%
Finablr Will be booted out of the FTSE 250 later this month -16.0%
Capita Analysts took the axe to forecasts following annual results -38.4%

The day’s biggest movers

Name Pre-tax figure
Profit (+) loss (-)

Dividend

Aviva (finance FY) £3.37bn (£2.13bn) 30p9p f 21.4p p
Capital & Regional (property FY) -£121m (-$25.5m) 21p f 11p p May 26
CLS Holdings (finance FY) £159m (£144.9m) 7.4p p 5.05p p Apr 29
Gresham House (finance FY) -$0.8m (-$0.646m) f 4.5p p Mar 20
Hansard Global (finance FY) £2.6m (£3m) 1.8p p Apr 21
Jardine Matheson Hlgs (finance FY) $5.43bn ($5.44bn) $1.72 f $1.28 p May 13
Keir (construction HY) -£41.2m (-£45.3m) nil
6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable

Results in brief

celebrity friends

including the former

model Agyness Deyn,

who was a flatmate.

Will Wright, a

partner at KPMG and

the joint administrator,

said that clothing

companies were

“experiencing the

same difficult trading

pressures as others

across the UK retail

market”.

Holland’s

label in the

nether lands