Barclays has reported pre-tax profits of £4.2bn for the six months to 30 June but has set aside £450m for swaps redress and revealed its finance director is involved in a fresh investigation by the FSA.

Alison Carnwath, the head of the Barclays remuneration committee that approved former CEO Bob Diamond's £17m pay package earlier this year, has left the bank.

The redeveloped macroeconomic investment model at Guinness family office and fund manager Iveagh is pointing to a pick-up in the Chinese economy, according to CIO Chris Wyllie.

Newton is to launch an Emerging Markets Income fund for Jason Pidcock to complement the manager's existing £2.1bn Asia Income fund.

UK dividends rose 18.4% in Q2 2012 to reach a record high of £22.6bn, fuelled by special dividends and strong underlying growth, according to the latest Capita Dividend Monitor.

Equity markets around the world have struggled to make headway this year, with many major indices giving up gains made early on to leave them standing flat or down for 2012.

European equity markets have slumped in afternoon trading as Spanish 10-year bond yields approach record highs once again.

Jacob de Tusch-Lec, manager of the Artemis Global Income fund, is upping his exposure to Real Estate Investment Trusts as he seeks to inflation-proof part of his portfolio.

Microsoft has reported a quarterly net loss of $492m, its first in 26 years as a public company, but it and Google helped ease concerns over the resilience of the tech sector as sales rose despite overall.

The departure of Halfords CEO David Wild has seemingly cheered investors but analyst sentiment is less clear-cut.