UK

Shares in taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group soared to a five-year high yesterday amid speculation the government is poised to start selling its stake.

Aviva Investors is to close its UK Special Situations fund after one of its managers, ex-Schroders UK equities head Richard Buxton, joined Old Mutual Global Investors.

The future of the UK economy may not be as bright as some have predicted, with the weakest recovery in 'industrial history' limiting annual growth to 1% in the longer term, according to a thinktank.

ON UK INCOME

Liontrust's Gary West has retired from fund management after 26 years in the industry, Investment Week can reveal.

Walker Crips Group has made £6.6m after crystallising convertible loan stock issued to it as part of Liontrust's 2012 acquisition of its asset management arm.

Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford is a longtime backer and major shareholder in some of the largest dividend paying stocks in the UK market.

Nigel Thomas, manager of AXA Framlington's £4.4bn UK Select Opportunities fund, has won the Outstanding Fund Manager award from Morningstar OBSR.

Star manager Richard Buxton has listed seven key things he has learnt since starting his career in fund management.

The Bank of England (BoE)has elected to hold the base rate at 0.5% and maintain the size of its quantitative easing (QE) programme at £375bn.