The Times - UK (2020-10-20)

the times | Tuesday October 20 2020 1GM 47

MarketsBusiness

Exchange rates

Bank sells Bank buys

Australia $ 1.730 1.989

Canada $ 1.613 1.855

Denmark Kr 7.710 8.794

Euro ¤ 1.050 1.200

Hong Kong $ 9.451 10.745

Hungary 362.886 441.078

Indonesia 17377.900 21786.200

Israel Shk 4.088 4.792

Japan Yen 127.321 147.014

New Zealand $ 1.850 2.187

Norway Kr 11.347 13.127

Poland 4.543 5.544

Russia 90.435 108.602

S Africa Rd 20.062 23.691

Sweden Kr 10.828 12.178

Switzerland Fr 1.116 1.295

Turkey Lira 9.845 11.507

USA $ 1.235 1.407

Rates for banknotes as traded by Royal Bank of

Scotland plc yesterday

Dollar rates

Australia 1.4109-1.4110

Canada 1.3160-1.3161

Denmark 6.3155-6.3160

Euro 0.8486-0.8487

Hong Kong 7.7499-7.7502

Japan 105.42-105.43

Malaysia 4.1380-4.1430

Norway 9.3022-9.3072

Singapore 1.3569-1.3570

Sweden 8.8066-8.8096

Switzerland 0.9092-0.9096

Other Sterling

Argentina peso 100.80-100.81

Australia dollar 1.8329-1.8332

Bahrain dinar 0.4868-0.4934

Brazil real 7.2307-7.2516

Euro 1.1025-1.1026

Hong Kong dollar 10.068-10.069

India rupee 95.324-95.352

Indonesia rupiah 19072-19128

Kuwait dinar KD 0.3965-0.3987

Malaysia ringgit 5.3776-5.3841

New Zealand dollar 1.9598-1.9603

Singapore dollar 1.7626-1.7630

S Africa rand 21.403-21.415

U A E dirham 4.7719-4.7722

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 -0.034. Sell: 1 mth -0.020; 3 mth -0.0 40

1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth

Interbank Rates 0.0436 0.0499 0.0459 0.0754 0.1251

Eurodollar Deps 0.06-0.26 0.07-0.27 0.08-0.28 0.11-0.31 0.19-0.39

Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month

Copenhagen 8.1965-8.2462 8.2047-8.2059 48ds 142ds

Euro 1.1083-1.1015 1.1026-1.1025 5pr 14pr

Montreal 1.7031-1.7146 1.7096-1.7098 1pr 2pr

New York 1.2923-1.3022 1.2991-1.2992 2pr 7pr

Oslo 12.057-12.132 12.087-12.091 19pr 65pr

Stockholm 11.405-11.474 11.441-11.445 23ds 70ds

Tokyo 136.23-137.19 136.95-136.97 3ds 10ds

Zurich 1.1800-1.1880 1.1813-1.1815 9ds 26ds

Premium = pr Discount = ds

Sterling spot and forward rates

London Grain Futures

LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)

Nov 185.90 Jan unq Mar unq

May unq Jul unq Volume: 472

London Metal Exchange

(Official)

Cash 3mth Dec 21

Copper Gde A ($/tonne)

6755.0-6755.0 6773.5-6773.5 6786.0-6786.0

Lead ($/tonne)

1742.5-1742.5 1764.0-1764.0 1805.0-1805.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)

2472.0-2472.0 2490.5-2490.5 2527.0-2527.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne)

1848.0-1848.0 1859.0-1859.0 1911.0-1911.0

Nickel ($/tonne)

15653.0-15653.0 15704.0-15704.0 15882.0-15882.0

Tin ($/tonne) 15mth

18400.0-18400.0 18445.0-18445.0 18303.0-18303.0

European money

deposits %

Currency

1mth 3mth 6mth 12mth

Dollar

0.13 0.20 0.29 0.55

Sterling

0.04 0.05 0.08 0.13

Euro

0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50

Gold/Precious

metals (US dollars per ounce)

Bullion: Open $1901.18

Close $1909.02-1909.50 High $1917.53

Low $1897.28

AM $1910.00 PM $1905.60

Krugerrand $1889.00-1992.00 (£1453.96-1533.24)

Platinum $866.00 (£666.56)

Silver $24.62 (£18.95)

Palladium $2344.00 (£1804.17)

Data as shown is

for information

purposes only. No offer is made by

Morningstar or this publication

C

onoco Phillips

has agreed to buy

Concho

Resources, the US

shale oil producer, for

$9.7 billion, against a

backdrop of lower fuel

prices and falling

demand. The deal

swaps 1.56 shares of

Conoco Phillips for

each Concho share, a

premium of about

1.5 per cent over

Friday’s closing price.

Conoco Phillips was

founded in 1875 as the

Continental Oil and

Transportation

Company and today

employs 9,700 staff

across 16 countries.

Concho was formed

in 2004 as Concho

Equity Holdings by a

group of businessmen

headed by Timothy

Leach and in 2006

acquired assets from

European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.3 per

cent.

Stagecoach and Go Ahead, the bus

operators, continued to bathe in the

afterglow of upgrades from HSBC last

week. They also benefited from the

positive sentiment around a vaccine,

which would bring passengers back

on board, thereby helping to lift their

shares from close to rock bottom.

Stagecoach rose 13.5 per cent, or

5p, to 42½p, putting it at the top of the

FTSE all-share leaderboard. In

second place was Go Ahead, up by

11.5 per cent, or 65p, to 631½p.

There is little hope of Wall Street

giving any direction at present. US

markets have all but given up on

Congress passing a multitrillion-

dollar fiscal stimulus before the

November 3 election but at least

there are still some hopes that a

smaller package, of perhaps a few

hundred billion, could be agreed

before then. At the weekend, the

Democrats set a deadline of today for

the White House to strike a deal.

CONOCOPHILLIPS

James Dean Market report

P

osh coffee and all-you-can-

drink IPA weren’t enough to

get Wework and its trendy

offices on to the stock

market. After inspecting the

float prospectus, analysts cried foul

on the $47 billion price tag attached

to the flashy, heavily loss-making

American start-up, pointing out that

IWG, its greyer British rival, was

valued at about a tenth of that.

With Wework in the mire but

demand for shared offices returning,

analysts at Berenberg are betting that

IWG will have the last laugh.

“Irrational, loss-making” competitors

such as Wework will “either

disappear, or declare bankruptcy, or

restructure and shrink materially”

because of Covid-19, they said. IWG,

meanwhile, will recover to pre-

pandemic levels of profitability as

soon as next year, thanks in part

to successful site closures and

cost-cutting, they predicted.

Berenberg hoisted its price target

for IWG to 350p from 260p and its

recommendation from “hold” to

“buy”. This sent IWG’s shares up by

5 per cent, or 13p, to 274½p, sending it

to the No 4 spot on the FTSE 350

leaderboard.

Battered travel and leisure stocks

staged something of a revival amid

growing optimism that a coronavirus

vaccine could arrive in time for

Christmas in the United States, or

soon after in the UK. Mitchells &

Butlers, the pubs group, gained 5.8

per cent, or 8p, to 140p. Tui, the

holiday operator, added 6 per cent, or

16½p, to 291¾p and Carnival, the

cruise operator, rose 4.5 per cent, or

40½p, to 947¼p.

The rescue of Flybe out of

administration further boosted

sentiment among airlines: Easyjet

rose 4.8 per cent, or 22¾p, to 493½p

and IAG, the British Airways owner,

gained 4.4 per cent, or 4¼p, to 100p,

making it the top riser among FTSE

100 companies.

European markets rallied early in

the day, fuelled by vaccine optimism,

a solid third-quarter growth reading

from China and strong trading

updates from some of the continent’s

biggest companies. Investors brushed

off a glitch at Euronext that

temporarily halted equities trading on

several exchanges in the morning.

However, Britain’s index of leading

shares declined to join the rally,

which petered out towards the close.

The export-heavy FTSE 100 closed

down 0.6 per cent, or 34.93 points, to

5,884.65 as the pound rose by 0.6 per

cent against the dollar to $1.299.

Sterling was propped up by the news

that Britain and the European Union

will “intensify” trade talks after Boris

Johnson appeared to slam the door

shut last week.

The FTSE 250 gained 0.2 per cent,

or 43.17 points, to 17,866.08. The pan-

Euronext markets hit by glitch

EXCHANGES

T

rading was

halted in Paris,

Amsterdam and

several other

European markets

yesterday because of a

glitch at Euronext, the

exchange operator

(James Dean writes).

The temporary

outage hit equity,

bond, fund,

commodity futures

and derivative

markets in the

morning.

Euronext operates

stock exchanges and

financial markets

across Europe. Its

equity markets

account for about

€3.8 trillion of market

capitalisation in 1,500

companies.

Euronext said that

the outage was caused

by a software bug. It

said that all markets

were up and running

by 1pm except for

warrants and

certificates, which

were being looked at.

The outage came at

the unofficial start to

corporate earnings

season in Europe.

Danone, the Paris-

listed food group, was

among several large

companies to post

results in the

morning.

Earlier this month,

the worst outage on

record at the Tokyo

Stock Exchange

brought the world’s

third largest equity

market to a

standstill.

The London Stock

Exchange Group

agreed this month to

sell Borsa Italiana,

which owns the Milan

stock exchange, to

Euronext for

€4.3 billion.

Euronext runs stock

exchanges and other

markets across Europe

Wall Street report

Indices fell with few corporate

earnings results to latch onto and

dwindling hopes of any further fiscal

stimulus until after next month’s

election. The Dow Jones industrial

average was down 410.89 points, or

1.4 per cent, at 28,195.42.

Company Change

Provident Financial Continues recovery after recent slump 6.7%

Mitchells & Butlers Vaccine hopes boost hospitality sector 6.1%

Tui Positive vaccine news good for travel shares 6.0%

IWG Upgrade from Berenberg 5.0%

Easyjet Flybe rises from the ashes to boost sector 4.8%

Bodycote Investors cash in after recent climb -2.9%

Greencore Disappointing trading update continues to weigh -2.9%

Coats Group Rise in sterling hurts exporters -3.1%

Serco Profit-taking after last week’s jump -3.1%

Vivo Energy Volatility continues -3.5%

The day’s biggest movers

Name Pre-tax figure

Profit (+) loss (-)

Dividend

Bioventix (health FY) £8.2m (£7m) 141p f 105p p Nov 13

Tristel (health FY) £6.6m (£4.8m) 6.18p f 3.84p p Dec 18

6 Results in brief are given for all companies valued at more than £30 million. f = final p = payable

Results in brief

Chase Oil to create

Concho Resources.

The purchase puts

Conoco Phillips in the

ranks of the top

producers in the

Permian Basin, the

prime US oilfield that

stretches from west

Texas to southeastern

New Mexico.

Conoco Phillips

shares closed down 3.2

per cent at $32.70 in

New York last night,

and Concho shares fell

2.7 per cent, or $1.33, to

finish at $42.27.

Conoco to

buy rival in

$9bn deal

Office provider has edge

on flashy alternative