Economics

The FTSE 100 will break the 6,100 barrier in the coming months as momentum in equity markets picks up, said Julian Chillingworth, manager of the £60m Rathbone Blue Chip Income & Growth fund.

Advisers with clients exposed to boiler room brokerage Sky Capital have begun enquiries into compensation, IFAonline understands.

Swiss banking giant UBS has seen its profits plunge 76% in the last quarter of 2011 as its investment banking arm turns loss-making.

Mining company Xstrata has formally announced its intention to merge with Glencore, the world's largest commodities trader, creating a commodities 'powerhouse'.

Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) said today net new business had fallen sharply in 2011 as the uncertainty caused by the sovereign debt crisis in Europe hit sentiment.

UK oil leviathan BP today announced its first dividend hike since it resumed payouts a year ago, after revealing profits had soared in the fourth quarter of 2011.

BNY Mellon Asset Management has outsourced and renamed its £57m Newton US Equity fund, formerly managed by Simon Laing.

BlackRock's Absolute Return manager Mark Lyttleton has conceded he took long positions in the wrong shares in 2011, leading to disappointing performance.

Investors can continue to buy 10-year debt issued by safe haven governments in 2012, with the risk of losing vast sums diminished, said Kames Capital's David Roberts.

GAM has joined forces with Barclays Capital to launch a mult-asset product offering access to Barclays' quantitative indices.