Rail, coach, and bus company National Express has seen profits rise by 80 percent in the first half of the year, mostly on a rise in the number of passengers it carries, it announced on Thursday.
The company, which operates thirty percent of the passenger trains in the UK, said that its rail division’s […]

The UK’s Environmental Agency, which currently regulates chemical companies, power plants, and waste disposal companies, has said that it is considering prosecuting retailers if the businesses which supply them produce illegal waste.
In a report published Thursday, the agency said that it is prepared to prosecute even businesses it does not directly regulate and […]

The Office of Fair Trading has warned credit card companies in the UK that they must cut their penalty charges to customers who pay their bills late or they may face penalties themselves.
The OFT has written letters to eight unnamed banks that cover the majority of the credit card market in the UK, […]

In London on Monday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.6 percent to 5,270.7 while the FTSE 250 barely moved at all, adding only 3.1 points to 7,498.9 as trade was relatively slow at just 2.6 billion shares.
The oil sector was strong in both the blue chip and mid-cap categories as Lehman Brothers predicted that […]

In the London equities markets, the FTSE 100 closed the week at 5,241.8, up 0.4 percent for the day and 0.2 percent for the week. The FTSE 250 ended the day Friday at 7,495.8, also up 0.4 percent for the day and 0.3 percent on the week.
It was a week of some […]

In the UK on Tuesday, the Department of Trade and Industry continued to pursue its plan to limit the liability of auditing firms from lawsuits when audits they carry out do not prevent the collapse of companies. Legislation on the matter will go before Parliament in the autumn.
The goal in limiting liability when lawsuits […]

In London on Monday, the FTSE 100 lost 16.6 points to close at 5,214.2 on profit-taking from recent gains, while the FTSE 250 was down 35.8 points, closing at 7,435.0. Three billion shares were traded on the day.
Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus, whose shares have gained 120 percent in the last two years, lost […]

Ernst & Young say the number of profits warnings issued by companies publicly listed in the UK have risen to their highest number since November of 2001.
There were 42 such warnings issued in April and 97 in the full second quarter of the year, and there profits warnings are running at a level […]

In London, the equities markets closed down on Friday. The FTSE 100 lost 0.6 percent on to close at 5,230.80, almost even for the week, while the FTSE 250 fell 0.5 percent on the day to 7,470.8, an 0.6 percent decline on the week.
The biggest losers for the week were the oil […]

According to a study carried out by AEA Technology for the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, while the importation of food incurs costs in terms of congestion, accidents, noise, and pollution, that does not necessarily mean that growing food in the UK for domestic consumption is the less expensive alternative. […]