The Times - UK (2020-10-14)

the times | Wednesday October 14 2020 1GM 45

MarketsBusiness

Exchange rates

Bank sells Bank buys

Australia $ 1.717 1.974

Canada $ 1.620 1.863

Denmark Kr 7.741 8.830

Egypt n/a n/a

Euro ¤ 1.054 1.205

Hong Kong $ 9.553 10.862

Hungary 356.533 433.356

Indonesia 17578.500 22037.700

Israel Shk 4.134 4.845

Japan Yen 128.728 148.638

New Zealand $ 1.858 2.196

Norway Kr 11.215 12.975

Poland 4.477 5.464

Russia 90.243 108.371

S Africa Rd 20.201 23.855

Sweden Kr 10.910 12.271

Switzerland Fr 1.123 1.303

Turkey Lira 9.877 11.545

USA $ 1.248 1.422

Rates for banknotes and traveller's cheques as

traded by Royal Bank of Scotland plc yesterday

Dollar rates

Australia 1.3966-1.3966

Canada 1.3130-1.3135

Denmark 6.3416-6.3426

Euro 0.8521-0.8521

Hong Kong 7.7498-7.7503

Japan 105.56-105.57

Malaysia 4.1350-4.1425

Norway 9.2215-9.2265

Singapore 1.3605-1.3607

Sweden 8.8212-8.8242

Switzerland 0.9148-0.9149

Other Sterling

Argentina peso 100.27-100.28

Australia dollar 1.8092-1.8095

Bahrain dinar 0.4855-0.4922

Brazil real 7.2198-7.2237

Euro 1.1038-1.1039

Hong Kong dollar 10.039-10.041

India rupee 95.132-95.138

Indonesia rupiah 19155-19189

Kuwait dinar KD 0.3955-0.3977

Malaysia ringgit 5.3789-5.3886

New Zealand dollar 1.9502-1.9506

Singapore dollar 1.7624-1.7628

S Africa rand 21.364-21.377

U A E dirham 4.7685-4.7688

Money rates %

Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.10 ECB Refi -0.50 US Fed Fd 0.00-0.25

Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.74

Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.000; 3 mth -0.020. Sell: 1 mth -0.010; 3 mth -0.0 30

1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth

Interbank Rates 0.0429 0.0569 0.0461 0.0715 0.1453

Eurodollar Deps 0.06-0.26 0.07-0.27 0.08-0.28 0.11-0.31 0.20-0.40

Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month

Copenhagen 8.2045-8.2496 8.2156-8.2168 48ds 140ds

Euro 1.1089-1.1024 1.1039-1.1038 5pr 14pr

Montreal 1.7011-1.7143 1.7011-1.7013 2pr 4pr

New York 1.2954-1.3066 1.2955-1.2956 2pr 8pr

Oslo 11.900-11.976 11.947-11.951 21pr 68pr

Stockholm 11.391-11.508 11.428-11.432 21ds 64ds

Tokyo 136.75-137.76 136.75-136.77 3ds 10ds

Zurich 1.1827-1.1900 1.1851-1.1853 9ds 27ds

Premium = pr Discount = ds

Sterling spot and forward rates

London Grain Futures
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)
Nov 181.80 Jan unq Mar unq
May unq Jul unq Volume: 662

London Metal Exchange

(Official)

Cash 3mth Dec 21

Copper Gde A ($/tonne)

6699.5-6699.5 6705.5-6705.5 6727.5-6727.5

Lead ($/tonne)

1826.5-1826.5 1837.5-1837.5 1878.0-1878.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)

2428.0-2428.0 2446.5-2446.5 2486.5-2486.5

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne)

1841.0-1841.0 1854.0-1854.0 1904.0-1904.0

Nickel ($/tonne)

15147.0-15147.0 15199.0-15199.0 15388.0-15388.0

Tin ($/tonne) 15mth

18320.0-18320.0 18315.0-18315.0 18184.0-18184.0

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

0.04 0.05 0.07 0.15

Euro

0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50

Bullion: Open $1924.70

Close $1892.20-1893.52 High $1924.70

Low $1886.73

AM $1919.80 PM $1925.50

Krugerrand $1873.00-1975.00 (£1445.67-

1524.40)

Platinum $877.00 (£676.91)

Silver $24.05 (£18.56)

Palladium $2335.00 (£1802.27)

Data as shown is

for information

purposes only. No offer is made by

Morningstar or this publication

D

isney is

prioritising

streaming video

over television and

cinemas amid a boom

in digital viewing

(James Dean writes).

The $225 billion

entertainment group

has created three

“content engines” to

feed films, television

series and other

products into its

Disney+, Hulu and

ESPN+ channels. The

shift in strategy comes

as viewers cancel

television packages

and join streaming

services.

Disney+, which

released The

Mandalorian, above,

part of the Star Wars

franchise, was set up in

November last year

and exceeded Wall

Street’s forecasts for

the re-tightening of restrictions in

Britain and around Europe. Carnival,

the cruise ship operator, sank 59¾p,

or 6 per cent, to 930½p; SSP, the

airport caterer, fell 10¼p, or 5.2 per

cent, to 187¼p; and Trainline, the

ticket app, reversed 17¼p, or 4.8 per

cent, to 339¼p.

Supermarket stocks were strong

after the latest Kantar data showed

an acceleration in grocery sales last

month. Tesco, Britain’s largest

supermarket chain, rose 3¼p, or

1.5 per cent to 222½p; J Sainsbury,

the second biggest grocer, rose 2¼p,

1.1 per cent, to 202½p; and Wm

Morrison, the fourth-ranked food

retailer, gained 2¼p, or 1.3 per cent, to

174½p.

IP Group, the university technology

investor, topped the City leaderboard

as it zipped 5p, or 6.3 per cent, up to

85p after Oxford Nanopore, in which

it holds a 15 per cent, confirmed a

£113 million order from the British

government for its Covid-19 tests and

a £84 million cash injection.

DISNEY

Talk of higher Toscafund

offer for telecoms target

Tom Howard Market report

I

nvestors in Talktalk were given

some encouragement yesterday

that they may be able to squeeze

a few more million out of the

telecoms group’s second largest

shareholder.

The no-frills broadband supplier

revealed last week that Toscafund,

which owns a 29.1 per cent stake, was

in talks over a £1.1 billion offer. That

works out at 97p per share, but the

Talktalk share price has remained

above that ever since the discussions

came to light, indicating that the

market wants — and expects — more.

Toscafund is said to have had a 135p-

a-share offer knocked back last year,

but it has chanced its arm with a lower

bid after the pandemic-inspired plunge

that sent Talktalk shares tumbling to

record lows over the summer. Perhaps

unsurprisingly, some investors feel a

little short-changed by the

opportunistic timing of the latest

approach and are holding out for

more. They are unlikely to get what

was on the table last time around, but

were given some hope from Berenberg

that a better offer isn’t out of the

question.

“As we think a counterbid unlikely,

we believe that either the 97p bid will

succeed or Toscafund may moderately

raise the offer to placate investor anger

at the discount to last year’s rejected

offer and the low premium relative to

where the shares were trading,” Carl

Murdock-Smith, a telecoms analyst at

the German bank, said. Talktalk shares

closed down a penny, or 1 per cent, at

98p yesterday, implying that the

market also thinks that a slightly

better offer could be on its way.

Stock markets around Europe

drifted lower after it emerged that

Johnson & Johnson, the American

pharmaceuticals group, had paused

the trial of its coronavirus vaccine.

However, the FTSE 100, London’s top

index, fared better than most of its

peers, dipping 31.67 points, or 0.5 per

cent, to 5,969.71 as it was propped up

by a weak pound that boosted its

internationally focused constituents.

Sterling slid lower ahead of

tomorrow’s key Brexit deadline. The

more domestically biased FTSE 250,

and therefore less tied to the

currency’s fortunes, fell 276.70 points,

or 1.5 per cent, to 17,891.01, bringing a

nine-day winning streak to an end.

Cineworld, the nation’s biggest

cinema chain, edged another 1¼p, or

4.6 per cent, down to 28¼p as the

industry was dealt a blow by Disney

saying that its “primary focus” would

be on making films and series to

stream on its Disney+ platform. “If

there were to be a change in Disney’s

investment in content for cinema

release, it would be detrimental to

cinemas,” Peel Hunt said.

The wider travel and leisure sector

was under the cosh as well amid the

stumble in the hunt for a vaccine and

Round Hill aims to strike chord

leisure

A

nother music

royalty fund is

set to list in

London next month

and cash in on the

City’s thirst for buying

up the rights to old

pop songs (Tom

Howard writes).

Round Hill Music

Royalty Fund plans to

raise $375 million

from investors ahead

of its float, which it

will use to buy a

“seasoned portfolio”

of 120,000 songs,

including the rights to

tracks such as Total

Eclipse of the Heart by

Bonnie Tyler and

What a Wonderful

World by Louis

Armstrong.

In recent years

investors have tuned

into music royalties,

which they like for

their reliability.

Royalty funds’ pitch is

that people will listen

to good music for

years, regardless of

how the economy is

faring. That has been

a good enough sell for

London’s big

institutions, which

have armed Hipgnosis,

a rival fund run by

Merck Mercuriadis,

the former manager of

Sir Elton John and

Beyoncé, with more

than £1 billion since it

floated two years ago.

Round Hill, which

has managed three

private royalty funds

over the past decade,

no doubt will be

hoping to follow the

trail blazed in London

by Hipgnosis. Bosses

are targeting returns

of between 9 per cent

and 11 per cent each

year, including a

dividend yield of

4.5 per cent.

Bonnie Tyler is one of

the music artists set to

feature in the portfolio

Wall Street report

News that Johnson & Johnson was

pausing clinical trials of a Covid-19

vaccine and no sign of progress on a

further stimulus deal ended a four-

day winning run. The Dow Jones

industrial average fell 157.71 points,

or 0.6 per cent, to 28,679.81.

Company Change

IP Group Investee company secures big order for its Covid tests 6.5%
Puretech Health Recovers Monday’s losses 2.3%

Vectura Rebound continues after dire end to September 1.9%
Scottish Mort Inv Trust Tracks Nasdaq’s recent rise back towards record highs 1.8%

SSE Sells stakes in several UK energy-from-waste plants 1.7%
Mediclinic Profit-taking after 12-session winning run -5.7%

Rolls-Royce JP Morgan warns of “significantly deteriorating” outlook for global air traffic -6.0%

Carnival Travel shares rattled by vaccine stumble and fresh lockdowns -6.0%
Meggitt Prolonged slump in air travel bad for aircraft engineers -7.7%

National Express Worst session for two months -8.0%

The day’s biggest movers

Name Pre-tax figure

Profit (+) loss (-)

Dividend

BP Marsh & Partners (finance HY) £6.5m (£5.6m) nil

Essensys (technology FY) £0.4m (-£1.4m) nil

Nanoco (technology FY) -£6m (-£5.5m) nil
Netcall (technology FY) £0.5m (£0.8m) 0.25p p Feb 9

Onthemarket (property HY) £0.7m (-£7.2m) nil

Sareum Holdings (health FY) -£1.1m (-£1.7m) nil
6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable

Results in brief

subscribers. Disney has

more than 100 million

subscribers to its

streaming services.

Disney’s new studios

group comprises Pixar,

Lucasfilm, Marvel

Studios and others. It

also will have a general

entertainment and

sports group.

The reorganisation

was announced after

markets on Monday

night. Disney shares

closed up $3.99, or

3.2 per cent, at $128.96

yesterday.

Stars align

for Disney’s

streaming