Spanish borrowing costs have fallen sharply at the country's latest debt auction, with demand also strong, after the European Central Bank (ECB) acted to tackle the funding crisis.

Aviva Investors has proposed the closure of its Global Listed Real Estate Securities business, including the Global REIT fund run by Paul Van De Vaart, as it has "insufficient scale".

The UK's main inflation rate fell back towards the 2% target in August, reversing a surprise jump the previous month.

The Treasury was too slow in nationalising Northern Rock during the height of the financial crisis, one of its top civil servants has said.

Apple, the world's largest company, saw its shares break through $700 for the first time ever overnight after it revealed it had received a huge number of pre-orders for the new iPhone.

RICHARD JEFFREY

Hargreaves Lansdown is telling asset management groups they do not need to overhaul their internal fund rebate systems before the arrival of ‘RDR 2‘ in 2014.

A Greek exit from the single currency would be a 'catastrophe', the country's Prime Minister reiterated over the weekend.

LEHMANS WINNERS

Residential property fund manager Hearthstone Investments has been given a fresh £15m cash injection from Bovis, the FTSE 250-listed group.