News

UniCredit, Italy's top bank, is set to launch a rights issue to help strengthen its balance sheet after reporting losses of €10.64bn.

Patrick Evershed lost his cool on one of his last days at New Star, attacking the firm's CIO for preventing him topping up a position in HBOS, an employment tribunal heard today.

The euro weakened this morning as the cost of insuring French bonds climbed to a record, Spanish yields rose and european equities retreated for a second day.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined discretionary fund managers McInroy & Wood Limited (MWL) £15,050 for breaching the regulator's client money rules.

Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation dropped to 5% in October, down from 5.2% the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said today.

Update: European shares fell today - mirroring overnight losses in Asia and the US - on continued concerns about the eurozone debt crisis, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying Europe faces its "hardest hour" since World War II.

Luxury fashion house Burberry Group, a long standing favourite of Schroders' Richard Buxton,reported a rise in half-year profits to £158.7m driven by improved sales in areas like China.

Neptune's Rob Burnett is eyeing European banks for his equity portfolio as he believes the sector will be supported by full fiscal union - an option he thinks is becoming increasingly likely to rescue Europe from its debt crisis.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) should be broken up and the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS reversed as part of a radical move to end the "comfortable oligopoly" of the country's high street banks.

Swiss investment bank UBS has warned the UK will lose the "safe haven" status it has enjoyed this year as the US attracts more investors.