Markets

Japan's Nikkei 225 index has closed down 7.3% as comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke over a potential scaling back of quantitative easing spooked investors worldwide.

JPMorgan Chase head Jamie Dimon survived a protest vote at the firm's annual shareholder meeting yesterday, which may have stripped him of his role as chairman.

The vast majority of UK smaller companies funds have failed to produce significant alpha for investors over the past year, with the average fund's return lagging one benchmark index by ten percentage points.

Close Brothers has suspended redemptions on Deryck Noble-Nesbitt's Special Situations fund ahead of an expected wind-up of the portfolio in August this year.

UK CPI inflation has fallen to 2.4% in April, a larger-than-expected drop from the 2.8% figure recorded in March.

Vodafone has reported a record fall in organic service revenue in the first three months of 2013 but has hiked its full-year dividend by 7%.

Franklin Templeton's Ben Russon is to become lead manager of its £108m UK Select Growth fund next month as he begins to alter the portfolio following his move from Newton.

Marks & Spencer has reported a heavy fall in profits over the year to 30 March, despite rising sales across the group as a whole.

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