Thursday lunchtime business bulletin

Apr 17 2008 By Andrew Mernin

Crude oil prices continued their record run today after topping the US$115 US a barrel mark for the first time.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery hit 115.53 dollars in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before settling back a few cents. It is the third day in a row they have scaled record highs as investors fretting over oil supplies and a weaker dollar plough funds into commodities.

In London, Brent crude futures also reached a new record of 113.21 dollars.

Oil prices are up around 20% from the 96-dollars-a-barrel level seen at start of this year.

The AA warned hard-pressed motorists that average unleaded petrol prices of £5 a gallon were ``just around the corner".

Compared to a month ago, a litre of petrol costs 1.3p more at 108.06p - £4.91 a gallon, the organisation said. Diesel, which passed the £5 a gallon mark more than a month ago, has risen 3.16p to 117.41p per litre.

Shares in home shopping firm Findel dived by nearly 40% today after profits were hit by an increase in customers slipping behind on payments.

The company, which sells a range of household goods under names such as the Cotswold Company, Kitbag and Ace, said it was adding £5m to its bad debt provision for the year ended March 31 2008, with profits hit as a result.

It comes after the group experienced a ``softening" in repayments from credit customers during the past two months.

Around 1.5 million customers use credit to buy goods through Findel’s home shopping arm, with another one million paying by cash.

The buy-to-let market looks set to continue thriving despite falling house prices, commentators said today.

There have been concerns that a drop in the value of property could cause investment landlords to dump large numbers of homes on to the market in a bid to cash in on recent price gains, further depressing values.

There has also been speculation that buy-to-let investors could struggle to refinance in the current mortgage market as lenders continue to tighten their lending criteria, leading to forced sales.

But figures from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) suggest that the majority of landlords are well positioned and are happy to sit tight and ride out the storm.

The pound at noon was US$1.9796 compared to US$1.9741 at the previous close while the euro at noon was £0.8046  compared to £0.8083 at the previous close.