Barclays Bank announce a great first quarter of 2009

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Barclays Bank announce a great first quarter of 2009 .

Barclays Bank revival seems to be gathering full speed with the news that the bank have made a considerable rise in profits for the first quarter of 2009, a quarter where the UK financial crisis was at its most furious.

Income at the bank was almost double from the corresponding period of last year, reaching a record £8.15billion, with pre-tax profits up 15% from last year at £1.37billion. It might be no coincidence that Barclays has shunned the possibility of government aid, preferring to go it alone and raising capital on the private market. Hopes are that the now largely state-owned banks will issue similar results.

Not flying as high are the British Airports Authority who reported a major loss in the operation of the three London Airports as the UK public moved increasingly into stay-at-home mode. BAA, whose principal shareholder is the Spanish group, Ferrovial, are being forced to dispose of three of its seven UK airports as part of a monopoly ruling, and are reported to be in the final stages of selling off Gatwick Airport, as well as Stansted also in London. The group is still contemplating which of the two Scottish Airports under its control they should sell.

Australian press mogul Rupert Murdoch announced that he has come to terms that the UK newspapers under his control will almost uncertainly ne unprofitable for the foreseeable future. Murdoch remained confident that their publications will be stronger as Britain emerges from the recession. To add weight to his argument came the announcement that both of the company's flagship newspapers, The Times and The Sunday Times made a loss of around £50 million pounds in the financial year ending June 2008.

Computer software giant Microsoft is also feeling the pinch, and has begun to firm up on their announced attention to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide. The UK will have to take their share, and it means that around 150 of Microsoft's UK workforce will be leaving the company in the near future.

The UK car industry is certainly in the headlines these days, with reports that talks between prestige carmaker Jaguar/Land Rover and the UK government seem likely to collapse.
JL are reported to be unhappy with the treasury's package of financial support offer, which while it has not been formally rejected. Reports have it the that the company feel that the loan conditions in return for government bank guarantees are too tough unacceptable JL's owners have issued a "veiled threat" on the implications of the government's inflexibility, with jobs and important investment being cut.

Meanwhile, UK communications giant Carphone Warehouse are confident that they will succeed in completing their purchase of UK assets of Italian company Tiscali's before the weekend. If everything goes to plan, Carphone Warehouse would become the UK's second largest broadband supplier.
Tiscali are reported to be in debt to the tune of close to £500million, and are anxious to dispose of their UK business.

On the FTSE, under pressure British Airways Plc is scheduled to publish this month's traffic figures. Their stock moved forward 12.1 percent, (17.9 pence, to 165.) Europe’s second-biggest discount airline EasyJet Plc also saw their shares rise by nine percent (27.25 pence to 332.25) despite some disappointing trading results.
Property management company, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc enjoyed a shares increase of 2.3 percent (5 pence to 221) in lieu of their first quarter report.
Britain’s largest long-distance coach operator National Express Group Plc is also scheduled to report earnings today. Again their stock advanced, this time by 28.8 percent (74.75 pence to 334.25)

On the day, the FTSE 100 Index rose 93.72, or 2.2 percent, to 4,336.94. The FTSE 250 closed on the day at 7,871.20, down 21 points.

Sterling was up slightly against the dollar, yet fell back against the Euro, whilst standing firm against both the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc:

Pound/US dollar 1.513

Pound/Euro 1.376

Pound/Japanese Yen 149.41

Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7186

Wall Street shares had a good day on trading despite fears of bank instability The Dow Jones Average rose 101.63 points to close at 8512.28. Nasdaq crept up a mere 5 points to reach 1759.1 at the close of business.

US regulators are moving to impose tough conditions on banks that want to repay federal bail-out funds, requiring them to prove that they can issue debt without government insurance with results of stress test to be announced today.

The tests are designed to measure how US banks will withstand the pressure of another major financial downturn without the need for the US government needing to intervene. Estimates have it that US financial regulators will to require Bank of America to maintain a "war chest" containing as much as $34 billion, The bank are obviously taking the matter seriously and are reported to be in the early stages of selling off their share in the China Construction Bank, which would give them around $8billion to put aside for a rainy day.

The unlikely merger between German car manufacturers Volkswagen and Porsche looks like it is about to happen, after weeks of tough negotiations, and abortive plans by Porsche to actually takeover VW

In the global commodities market, crude oil was sitting around $56.50 a barrel, Gold had climbed $.140 an ounce to close at $912.40. Copper dropped to $217.55.