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| CA-BUSINESS Summary Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:36 AM PDT European shares, euro dip as central banks awaited LONDON (Reuters) - European shares and the euro eased while German bonds were flat on Wednesday as investors awaited this week's policy decisions by the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank followed by U.S. employment data. On Thursday the ECB is forecast to leave interest rates unchanged but expectations are high that Japan's central bank will announce a forceful monetary easing to try to boost its recession-bound economy. ... Full Story | Top |
| European shares, euro dip as central banks awaited Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:36 AM PDT  By Richard Hubbard LONDON (Reuters) - European shares and the euro eased while German bonds were flat on Wednesday as investors awaited this week's policy decisions by the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank followed by U.S. employment data. On Thursday the ECB is forecast to leave interest rates unchanged but expectations are high that Japan's central bank will announce a forceful monetary easing to try to boost its recession-bound economy. The monthly U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Energy supplier SSE fined £10.5 million for mis-selling Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:26 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's energy regulator has fined gas and electricity supplier SSE £10.5 million for mis-selling, the largest fine it has ever imposed on an energy supplier. Ofgem said on Wednesday it had found failures relating to telephone, in-store and doorstep sales at SSE "at every stage of the process", including at management level. "The level of fine reflects the seriousness and duration of breaches, the likely substantial harm that they have caused and the likely gain to SSE," it added. ... Full Story | Top |
| Astrazeneca buys early-stage U.S. biotech firm Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:24 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Astrazeneca said on Wednesday that its MedImmune unit has bought AlphaCore Pharma, a US-based biotechnology company focused on heart treatments. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. (Reporting by Brenda Goh, Editing by Christine Murray) Full Story | Top |
| Credit Agricole aims for 12 percent return on equity Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:22 AM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - Credit Agricole is aiming for a return on equity of 12 percent through 2016 and will cut fixed costs by 15 percent to achieve it, the head of its investment banking unit told Les Echos newspaper and Agefi newsletter. "To get there we will tighten our spending, as we are doing across the investment banking unit," Jean-Yves Hocher said in the interview published Wednesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| SAfrica March new auto sales down 2.1 pct y/y Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:20 AM PDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - New car sales in South Africa totaled 54,946 units in March, a 2.1 percent drop from the same month last year partly due to a loss of sales during the Easter holiday, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (NAAMSA) said on Tuesday. NAAMSA added that there could be a moderation in the rate of growth in sales this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| S.African rand edges higher but pressure lurks Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:07 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar on Wednesday after a bout of weakness overnight following disappointing factory data that reinforced a gloomy economic outlook and the likelihood of continued pressure on the currency. The rand was at 9.2325 versus the greenback at 0659 GMT, a 0.22 percent gain from Tuesday's close at 9.2530. The rand retreated from two-week highs on Tuesday, weighed down by a report showing the Purchasing Managers' Index, a forward-looking pointer to manufacturing activity in the economy, fell into contraction territory in March. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brent dips toward $110 on demand worries, US supply Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013 12:01 AM PDT  By Luke Pachymuthu SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude slipped toward $110 a barrel on Wednesday, dropping for a second straight day, as swelling oil inventories in the United States and recent weak data fuelled worries about demand from the world's top consumer. U.S. oil prices suffered further pressure from concerns about a prolonged pipeline outage in the Midwest leading to a buildup in stockpiles near the delivery point of the benchmark contract in Cushing, Oklahoma. Crude oil stocks in the United States rose 4. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gold drops to near 4-week low on US economic optimism Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013 11:53 PM PDT  By Lewa Pardomuan SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold fell for a second straight day on Wednesday and hit its lowest in nearly four weeks as investors shifted their money into risky assets for better returns on renewed optimism over the U.S. economy. Bullion has slipped more than 3 percent since hitting a 1-month high in March as fears about the debt crisis in Europe subsided, Wall Street rallied and recent strong U.S. economic data curbed safe-haven demand. Gold fell as much as 0.8 percent to $1,563.06 an ounce, its weakest since March 8, after hitting an intraday day high initially of $1,576. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil miner Vale stops payments on stalled West Africa project Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013 11:52 PM PDT SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's Vale is refusing to pay more money to BSG Resources, its partner on an iron ore project in Guinea that has stalled as the West African nation tries to overhaul its mining sector. Vale has paid $500 million of the $2.5 billion it agreed in 2010 to hand over to BSG, the mining arm of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz's business empire, in exchange for 51 percent of a portion of the Simandou development. ... Full Story | Top |
| BHP expects S.Africa's Eskom to honour power deals Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013 11:41 PM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - BHP Billiton expects South African power utility Eskom to honour deals that are letting the mining giant buy electricity for its smelters at just over half the cost of production, the company said on Wednesday. Eskom , which needs to generate cash to build new power stations to meet rising demand in Africa's biggest economy, has been trying to renegotiate the long-term preferential deals since 2009. ... Full Story | Top |
| China March services PMIs hit multi-month highs Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013 11:36 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in China's services sectors rose to multi-month highs in March as a construction boom and firmer demand lifted business and confidence, auguring well for a modest recovery in the world's second largest economy. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the non-manufacturing sector climbed to 55.6 in March from February's 54.5, aided by a buoyant construction sector. A PMI reading above 50 indicates accelerating activity. A separate services PMI published by HSBC showed growth rebounding to a six-month high of 54. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bouygues launches 4G service sales drive Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013 11:21 PM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - Bouygues Telecom will add 200 sales staff to its call centers after winning the right to re-use mobile frequencies once used for voice calls for superfast mobile broadband, its chief executive told Le Figaro newspaper. The move is a shift from last year's plan to cut over 500 jobs to cope with an intense price war brought on by the arrival of low-cost mobile group Iliad . Bouygues is benefiting from a decision similar to one by Britain's regulator last year allowing mobile operator EE to launch 4G services ahead of rivals over old mobile spectrum. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria's Zenith Bank full-year pre-tax profit up 51 pct Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013 11:09 PM PDT  LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's Zenith Bank said on Tuesday its full-year pre-tax profit grew by 51 percent to 102.1 billion naira in 2012, compared with 67.44 billion naira posted the previous year. Zenith's gross earnings also jumped 25.88 percent to 307.08 billion naira, from 243.95 billion naira the previous year, the bank said in a statement through the stock exchange. "Efficiency in our operations led to the significant improvement in our cost to income ratio ... our operational expenses were held in check at below 3 percent growth," Zenith Chief Executive Godwin Emefiele said. Full Story | Top |
| Botswana GDP growth at 1.3 pct q/q in Q4 2012 Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013 11:08 PM PDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Botswana's economy grew by 1.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2012 after rising by a revised 4.5 percent in the third quarter, data from the statistics office showed on Tuesday. On a year-on-year basis growth was at 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a revised 3.2 percent expansion for Q3. Annual growth in the diamond-producing southern African country slowed to 3.7 percent in 2012 from a revised 6.1 percent in 2011, the statistics agency said. Full Story | Top |
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