News

The FTSE 100 rose 0.9% to 5,791.10 in early morning trading as a weaker US dollar provided support for mining stocks.

The Singapore stock exchange is planning a £5.3bn takeover of its Australian counterpart in a deal which would create the world's fifth largest listed bourse.

Business leaders have issued a fresh warning today about Britain's competitiveness, releasing a survey of leading executives which suggests the country is slipping behind its international rivals.

The Co-op may sell its £18bn life insurance business in a re-organisation instigated by new CEO Neville Richardson.

Ignis head of credit portfolio management Chris Bowie has liquidated more than £250m of subordinated financial debt across the group's bond portfolios.

Former Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve says the UK should resist resuming quantitative easing, as the economic recovery appears to be persisting.

US private equity group JC Flowers is lining up bids for at least four UK building societies as part of an ambitious plan to create a 'supermutual' that could be partially floated in London in five years.

The managers of the £187m BlackRock Greater Europe investment trust have significantly outperformed their benchmark thanks to an overweight to industrials and an underweight to financials.

Edinburgh Dragon Trust's Andrew Gillan has warned Asia's rapid growth will slow over the rest of this year, but is confident in the market's long-term prospects.

The interest rate rise in China last week, which initially unsettled global equity markets, has been seen by managers as a positive move for the sustainability of the burgeoning economy.