| Doubts hang over housebuilders Since equity markets bottomed in March, bricks and mortar – as measured by the UK Datastream home construction index – have lagged behind the wider market  Reed Elsevier climbs amid talk of unit revamp The scientific and business information publisher was among the few points of interest in the London market, which closed flat on Friday Balfour Beatty shares fall Shares in the UK civil engineering and construction group decline further, leaving them down by 25% on the year, in spite of a steady order book across the first half of 2009 Data show conditions easing The UK economy staged a sharp recovery in the second quarter of this year and may have returned to anaemic growth, new figures suggest BHP takes $675m writedown on Yabulu sale The mining group is to sell its Queensland nickel refinery to Clive Palmer, the Australian mining magnate, for an undisclosed sum Rio Tinto completes $15.2bn share sale Rio Tinto has successfully completed its $15.2bn rights issue, shoring up its financial position after the miner's Australian shareholders took up 95 per cent of their entitlement to the new shares Tesco sees off share options revolt Britain's biggest retailer suffered an unusual rebuff from shareholders when 41 per cent of investors voted against changes to its share option scheme Index suggests return to anaemic growth The UK's service sector grew for the second month in a row in June, according to a survey of business activity, allthough the speed of recovery appeared to ease BA launches fresh round of cuts British Airways is launching a fresh round of capacity reductions and job cuts to staunch mounting losses and to slow the outflow of cash from the business Overview: US jobs data sideline risky investments Investors recoiled from more daring assets after a sharp drop in US employment set back hopes for a quick revival of the world's largest economy WPP leads FTSE slide as Citigroup turns cautious The media group led the market sharply lower D Telekom seeks asset swap for T-Mobile UK The German telecoms operator is looking for a deal with would-be bidders for its underperforming UK unit to cushion the blow of pulling out of a big market StanChart names Peace as chairman John Peace has been confirmed as permanent chairman of Standard Chartered. He has been acting chairman since Mervyn Davies left to become UK trade minister in January UK telecoms Wringing out every last drop of savings by shutting down redundant networks and cutting marketing costs has become a priority Telefónica tests line for T-Mobile UK bid The prospect of a bidding war for T-Mobile UK is looming after it emerged that Telefónica is looking at the case for buying Britain's fourth largest mobile phone operator News Wizard |