The European Central Bank (ECB) has voted to hold interest rates and will boost liquidity in the eurozone in an attempt to prevent the sovereign debt crisis from spreading to Italy and Spain.

Franklin Templeton Investments has launched a global multi-asset product which makes use of the group's multi-manager capabilities and has the option to hedge markets on the downside.

River & Mercantile's Hugh Sergeant said negative investor sentiment is pushing up equity risk premiums to credit crunch levels despite strong balance sheets among UK companies.

GERMANY SHOULD EXIT EURO

The UK dividend market is emerging from the recession faster and stronger than expected, after a week in which many companies reported dividend increases of over 100% and many returned to the register.

Invesco Perpetual remains positive on the prospects for the Spanish economy despite Moody's hinting it may downgrade the nation's credit rating this morning.

Investors should wait six months before buying a newly-launched fund, and then only if it has already posted strong performance, according to analysis carried out by Dennehy Weller & Co.

Veritas' Ezra Sun has rebutted claims the Chinese economy is in for a hard landing despite concerns debt problems in Europe and the US will have a domino effect across the world.

Money market funds in the US are building up liquidity as fears of a downgrade or default on the nation's debt intensify ahead of debt ceiling vote.

Ardevora has begun promoting its UK Equity fund, unveiling a number of long and short positions taken since its launch in February.