Water companies need to get more leeway in their price regimes for the next five years to persuade investors to back the sector for the infrastructure investments required, says UBS.
OFWAT's draft determination (for the price review covering April 2025-March 2030) still has a gap to what UBS believes is required to attract necessary equity capital to fund investments.
Almost all of the 417 constituents of the MSCI Europe index of larger companies have reported so far in this earnings season (97% to be precise), and most of those that beat market expectations saw their shares rewarded with a good jump.
Not all of them, however.
In an industry as cyclical as recruitment, you need to take the ups with the downs.
Suffice it to say, that City recruiter Hays PLC (LSE:HAS) is taking its fair share of the latter right now.
UK equities "stand out" as one of the most popular investments in recent weeks, Morgan Stanley found in its analysts of current fund positioning.
Strategists at the investment bank noted that international funds have increased their exposure to UK stocks across all long-only fund types (ie not hedge funds that take short positions against stocks).
BP PLC (LSE:BP.) could get an unexpected boost to its value from the takeover toing and froing currently underway for Japanese 7 Eleven owner Seven & I, according to US bank Citi.
Canadian firm and Circle K owner ACT [Couche-Tard] has made a friendly offer for Seven & I, a move that Citi says amplifies its view that the retail marketing businesses within the global integrated oil companies (IOCs) are underappreciated.