KILL THE COMPETITION
Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Michael Beh
Tuesday, March 2, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The pound suffered its biggest one-day fall for more than a year amid the prospect of a hung Parliament.
Wall Street Journal: Key US senators were close to a deal on overhauling financial regulations and creating a new consumer-protection division within the Federal Reserve.
The Times: Three banks handling Prudential's $21 billion ($31 billion) rights issue will share a record $600 million ($896 million) in fees.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: It says something about your currency when foreign exchange dealers are even prepared to swap it for the Zimbabwean dollar.
Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph: Prudential's deal is depressingly symbolic of the shift in economic power and capital from the West to the developing East.
Gillian Tett in the Financial Times: American and European central banks desperately hope to replicate the success of the Bank of Japan's exit strategy.
Upside
The Times: Toyota, the troubled Japanese car group, confirmed that it had extended a service campaign on a number of models sold in the US.
Financial Times: Global trade in goods rose by 4.8 per cent in December, the fastest monthly increase on record.
The Independent: UK manufacturing output rose at its fastest rate for 14 years last month.
Downside
The Times: BAE Systems, Europe's largest defence company, pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of misleading the US Government over past arms deals.
The Independent: George Soros, head of Soros Fund Management, the hedge fund, has bet on the demise of the euro.
The Times: Regulators cleared the way for Orange and T-Mobile to create the UK's largest mobile phone operator, putting 2,000 jobs at risk.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's head of investment banking, was the highest-paid banker in London, with a £10 million ($15 million) package for 2009.
Wall Street Journal: Donald Kohn, who helped steer the US Federal Reserve through the financial crisis, will retire as vice chairman in June.
The Times: Achilleas Kallakis, a property tycoon, was charged with a £61 million ($91 million) commercial mortgage fraud against Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Scotland.
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Astellas Pharma, the Japanese drug maker, made a hostile $3.5 billion (£2.3 billion) bid for OSI Pharmaceuticals, the US cancer drug maker.
The Daily Telegraph: Diageo, the drinks giant, offered £610 million ($911 million) for Shui Jing Fang, the Chinese white spirit company.
Wall Street Journal: China Vanke, the country's largest property developer, said net profit rose 32 per cent in 2009 amid soaring property prices.
Look ahead
The Times: Babcock International, the naval ship servicer, has until April 12 to make a bid for VT Group, the defence services provider.
The Daily Telegraph: The Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, has new powers from next week that could treble the level of fines imposed.
Bloomberg: India will keep a majority stake in the government-controlled companies it sells to raise 400 billion rupees (£6 billion, $9 billion) next year.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,405.94 up 1% (Monday close)
Dow 10,403.79 up 0.8% (close)
S&P 500 1,115.71 up 1% (close)
Nasdaq 2,273.57 up 1.6% (close)
Nikkei 10,169.80 steady (latest)
Hang Seng 20,915.98 down 0.7% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.4944/1.1036 euros (latest)
Euro $1.3542 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $76.94 up 5 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $78.66 down 4 cents (latest)
Gold $1118.40 up 10 cents (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose for a second straight day as merger and acquisition news lifted sentiment and hopes for an agreement for debt-laden Greece. American International Group rose 4.4 per cent after Prudential, the UK insurer, agreed to buy its AIA Group insurance arm. Flash memory maker SanDisk rose 11.9 per cent after it raised its revenue forecast. US-listed shares of National Bank of Greece rose 2.3 per cent on signs that Athens might be nearing a deal with European Union governments for some form of emergency aid. Biotechnology firm Millipore rose 11.1 per cent a day after drug maker Merck agreed to buy it. OSI Pharmaceuticals rose 51.9 per cent after Japan's Astellas Pharma launched a hostile bid for the company.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade after US consumer spending increased more than expected and global semiconductor sales gained. Among memory chip makers, Samsung Electronics rose 3.1 per cent in Seoul, Toshiba rose 2 per cent in Tokyo and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing rose 0.8 per cent in Taipei. Hon Hai Precision, the world's biggest electronics maker, rose 2.7 per cent and Li & Fung, a Hong Kong company that sells goods to US retailers, rose 1.1 per cent on good US consumer data. Compal Electronics, the notebook computer maker, rose 1.7 per cent on good results. Rio Tinto, the world's third-largest miner, rose 1.2 per cent on higher metal prices. HSBC Holdings, the banking giant, fell 6.5 per cent in Hong Kong, on disappointing profit. Hang Seng Bank, a Hong Kong-based unit of HSBC, fell 4.4 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3 per cent to 119.29 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
The FTSE 100 advanced 51.42 points to 5,405.94 as a jump in commodity prices lifted miners and offset a difficult day for banks and insurers.
Copper prices hit their highest for more than five weeks as investors fretted that global supplies would be strangled by the huge earthquake in Chile, a country responsible for more than third of global copper production.
Kazakhmys, the Kazakh, copper miner, was among those to benefit most, rising 69p to £14.10.
Disruptions at some Chilean gas terminals underpinned oil prices at about $80 a barrel. BG Group advanced 8.5p to £11.53.
Resource companies were further buoyed by a stronger dollar, which was in demand after an opinion poll fanned fears for a hung Parliament in Britain and unsettled the pound. No clear majority for any one party makes the tough decisions needed to address the gaping budget deficit less likely, it was reasoned.
Gains were steeper still for Aggreko, a temporary power specialist, ahead of annual results on Thursday. The shares added 59p to £10.34 - the best performance by a bluechip - on confirmation of a £30 million contract to supply power and temperature controls to broadcasters at this Summer's FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Prudential kicked the legs from under the rest of the insurers by confirming plans to raise $20 billion through a fully underwritten rights issue - the biggest ever by a British company - to help buy American International Group's Asian business.
The sector gave ground in part as institutional investors sold shares to free cash to take take up their Pru rights, and in part as hopes faded of other big deals among the insurers.
Legal and General, a perennial bid favourite, fell 3.95p to 73.2p, while Aviva - itself recently linked with the Pru - lost 15.1p to 375.2p.
Gary Parkinson
Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk
