Risk assets are in danger of selling off when the Federal Reserve's QE2 programme draws to a close in June, according to Standard Life Investments' economist Douglas Roberts.

Brewin Dolphin held crisis talks with Alliance Trust last week as it called for the company to initiate further share buybacks to tighten its wide discount.

The £1.2bn Mercantile Investment trust has seen its discount tighten to below 10% following its recent share buyback programme.

World markets have dropped after Japan was struck by a second earthquake in as many months.

Standard Life Investments has changed the benchmark on its £595m Higher Income fund to reduce its risk profile.

Aberdeen is renaming its £8m MM Multi Asset Growth fund and broadening its remit to give it more of a total return focus.

Skandia has revamped its £60m Strategic Bond fund, cutting charges and giving the portfolio UCITS status.

The OECD today cut its second-quarter growth forecast for the UK to 1% from 1.3%, but said growth prospects for the G7 nations were rosier.

Oil has hit its highest level since August 2008 and has broken a new record in sterling terms, hitting £74.60 a barrel.

BlackRock's Evy Hambro has ruled out the introduction of a discount control mechanism (DCM) to rein in the discount on his £1.6bn BlackRock World Mining trust.