Friday April 11, 01:26 PM
Sector movers: BAE dives on corruption probe fears
LONDON (ShareCast) - Fears that the BAE (LSE: BA.L - news) /Saudi corruption probe may be re-opened have hit the weapons and aerospace group. The
High Court ruled yesterday that the decision by government ministers and the Serious Fraud Office to drop an investigation into alleged corruption in the BAE Systems (LSE: AP16.L - news) arms deal with Saudi Arabia was unlawful.Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Sullivan described the decision to halt the investigation as an "abject surrender" to "blatant threats" from Saudi Arabia. The High Court verdict has prompted calls for a full public enquiry. The Serious Fraud Office said it is "carefully considering the implications of the judgment and the way forward". Energy supplier Scottish & Southern Energy has agreed with the government to provide further assistance to its poorer customers in a deal lasting to March 2011. Under the agreement SSE will operate current and new schemes with a value of around £16m in the first phase of the programme, which runs up to 31 March 2009. The schemes will feature a variety of methods by which the fuel poor and those vulnerable to fuel poverty will be given assistance. These include "social" tariffs, work with advocate organisations and community-based programmes. The schemes will operate to a Code of Practice, announced today by SSE, the salient points of which are: * Any "social" tariff must be the lowest cost tariff on offer to any type of customer, irrespective of the payment method or sign-up method * "Social" tariff for customers should be lower than the average direct debit tariff for energy customers in the UK SSE's "social" tariff, known as "energyplus care", offers householders a 20% discount on their energy bills and a variety of other services to help customers manage their energy consumption more efficiently. SSE said Friday that over the coming year it would quadruple the number of customers entitled to use the "energyplus care" service, to 100,000 customer accounts. Top performing sectors so far today
Electricity 7,863.80 +2.07%
Oil Equipment Services & Distribution 15,856.80 +1.27%
Health Care Equipment & Services 3,944.00 +1.15%
Tobacco 24,574.00 +0.61%
Personal Goods 7,042.60 +0.48% Bottom performing sectors so far today
Aerospace and Defence 3,315.10 -3.83%
Mobile Telecommunications 3,513.80 -2.65%
Automobiles & Parts 4,501.30 -2.15%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 201.40 -1.47%
Food Producers & Processors 4,442.40 -1.42%
|
Send Article by Email
