Markets

Investec's Clyde Rossouw has backed Samsung to confound market expectations of a slowdown in the smartphone market as he positions his Global Franchise fund for the second half.

ON UK GROWTH

S&P Capital IQ is to explore strategic alternatives for its fund research business following an internal review.

Leading UK companies' profits dropped 34% over the year to end-March, according The Share Centre's Profit Watch UK research report.

Taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland could miss its end-2013 deadline to sell 316 branches, a potential bidder has said.

US consumer inflation increased in July, hitting the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate and keeping it on track to taper bond purchases as early as next month.

ON UK INCOME

The FTSE has tumbled as much as 2% as US ten-year yields touch two-year highs in expectation of an imminent slowdown of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing programme.

ON UK GROWTH

Measures to increase confidence in the UK housing market could herald a new house price bubble, economists have warned.