Relocation, relocation, relocation...

Does spread betting giant, IG Group, suddenly feel confident enough to become proper part of the City?
I hear that the FTSE 250 company has just signed a deal on new office space in the heart of the Square Mile - just behind Cannon Street station.
The relocation comes after years slumming it at its Blackfriars Road office - an unimpressive building that was (even worse) located south of the river.

Sign of the Times

As thousands of City types lose their jobs, at least they can console themselves with moves into the UK's one major growth industry - the public sector.
Job ads in the Business Leaders section of today's FT ask for non-execs of the UK Financial Investments Ltd - effectively Britain's sovereign wealth (sic) fund which manages stellar investments such as Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley - while there are more part-time directors required at the Tote, the state-run bookmaker.
It's a sign of our (Financial) Times.

Ashamed to name

The Telegraph's City Diarist, Jonathan Russell, quotes a study by investment website, Digital Look, which reveals that analysts tipping shares as a “strong buy” have seen their picks slump by 45%. “The only thing lacking from Digital Look's research is naming and shaming the 80-odd financial houses responsible,” Russell sneers.
Presumably, then, it was only space constraints that prevented Russell from naming and shaming his own colleagues on the Telegraph's Questor share tipping column. Of the six sure-fire winners they chose as their “tips of the year”, one is in profit (up 17%) while the other five are all heavily down, having lost 18%, 59%, 38%, 38% and 45% respectively.