Henderson's Bill McQuaker says the recent move by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to prevent the yen soaring against the dollar could feed through to equity markets if it is the start of a new trend.

Chinese growth raced ahead 9.7% in the first quarter of 2011, while inflation hit its highest level since 2008.

BP has extended the deadline for completing a share swap deal with Russian oil giant Rosneft until 16 May, as reports suggest talks with AAR about the British oil firm buying out its Russian partner in joint venture TNK-BP have "more or less collapsed"....

M&G's bond manager Jim Leaviss has clashed with Artemis' James Foster over whether the MPC should raise interest rates.

Artemis' fixed income star James Foster says the governor of the Bank of England needs to raise rates now to prevent inflation becoming embedded in the system.

Liontrust Asset Management has agreed the sale of its credit team and transfer of two of its credit funds to credit investment manager Avoca Capital.

F&C has soft-closed its Global Convertible Bond fund after assets passed the €700m mark.

IS ICELAND A TEST CASE FOR EUROPE?

Bank shares led the FTSE 100 higher in early trading as investors breathed a sigh of relief that the Independent Commission on Banking had opted to ring-fence banks rather than break them up.

M&G is to merge Alex Odd's Dividend and Income funds in a move to streamline its proposition in the income space.