Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying

Top stories

The Times: Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, is personally fighting to save the £12 billion ($21 billion) rescue of HBOS, Britain’s biggest savings bank.

The Times: Frantic efforts to resurrect the $700 billion (£390 billion) bailout continued but a rally on Wall Street watered down the sense of urgency.

Daily Telegraph: The cost of borrowing between banks jumped by the biggest ever margin as credit markets seized up despite another injection from central banks.

Comment

Carl Mortishead in The Times: Big banks look like Hummers : overweight, oversized and overengineered vehicles that no longer can afford fuel.

Damian Reece in the Daily Telegraph: The Government even considering the extreme action of guaranteeing bank deposits proves that all else has failed .

Matthew Lynn on Bloomberg: The problem with state rescue packages for banks is that bankers working for the government are even more dangerous .

Upside

The Times: Businesses and big savers started to empty their UK bank accounts and move their money to Ireland after the republic guaranteed all deposits.

Daily Telegraph: Barratt Developments has slashed 43 per cent off the price of some new homes for bulk buyers.

The Times: Tesco will take on credit crunched banks and offer mortgages and current accounts after the supermarket giant reported half-year profit rose 10.3 per cent.

Downside

The Times: ITV faces strike action after the broadcaster said 1,000 staff must be made redundant because of a severe downturn in advertising.

The Times: GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s second biggest drugmaker, will axe 850 research and development jobs in Britain and the US.

The Times: The administrator of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed US investment bank, made 750 British fixed-income bankers redundant after failing to sell the division.

Mergers and shakers

The Times: The head of Baugur, the Icelandic investment group, said its swag of British high street brands was secure as fears grew about Iceland’s economic crisis.

New York Times: Swiss authorities will give US prosecutors confidential data on wealthy US clients of UBS, the bank giant, in a significant shift in its secrecy laws.

Financial Times: Gold refineries are struggling to produce enough bars as super rich investors begin hoarding bullion seeking a safe haven for their money.

Around Asia

Financial Times: The Reserve Bank of India stepped in to prevent a run on ICICI Bank, India’s second largest lender, after rumours it was in trouble.

Bloomberg: Japan's largest manufacturers turned pessimistic about their prospects for the first time in five years as exports weaken.

Reuters: Citigroup plans to sell Bellsystem24, a Japanese call centre valued at $2 billion (£1.1 billion), insiders say.

Look ahead

Bloomberg: UBS, the European bank with the biggest losses from the credit crisis, may announce it will cut 1,900 jobs at its shareholder meeting on Thursday.

The Times: A former executive in British Airways’ cargo business will plead guilty over a price fixing racket involving nine airlines and will go to jail.

Reuters: The US housing market slump may not bottom until 2010, later than previously thought, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, predicts.

MARKETS

FTSE 100 4,902.45 up 1.7% (Tuesday close)

Dow 10,850.66 up 4.7% (close)

S&P 500 1,164.74 up 5.3% (close)

Nasdaq 2,091.88 up 5.5% (close)

Nikkei 11,399.60 up 1.2% (latest)

Hang Seng 18,016.21 up 0.8% (Tuesday close, market closed Wednesday for holiday)

Currencies

Sterling $1.7833/1.2643 euros (latest)

Euro $1.4105 (latest)

Commodities

Brent crude $98.85 up 68 cents (latest)

West Texas crude $101.47 up 83 cents (latest)

Gold $881.60 up 80 cents (latest)

New York

Reuters: Wall Street rallied a day after plunging as investors bet the financial bailout would be saved. More than half the previous day’s losses were recovered. Financial and technology companies were among the standouts. Apple rose 8 per cent and chipmaker Intel rose 8.5 per cent. Nasdaq cancelled some late trades in Google after investigating transaction errors. Among financials, JPMorgan rose 13.9 per cent and Citigroup rose 15.6 per cent. Among retailers, Wal-Mart rose 2.5 per cent and Target rose 3.6 per cent. Campbell Soup rose for the second consecutive day, ending up 2.3 per cent. On Monday, it was the only S&P 500 stock to record a gain.

Asia

Bloomberg: Asian stocks climbed in early trade, snapping a six-day losing streak. Westpac, Australia's third-largest bank, rose 5.3 per cent, Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s largest lender, rose 3.4 per cent and Nomura Holdings, Japan's largest brokerage, rose 4.8 per cent. Higher oil and commodity prices saw BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, rise 5.7 per cent and Mitsubishi, Japan's largest trading company, rise 4.9 per cent. Sumitomo Chemical, the Japanese petrochemical and pharmaceutical maker, fell 5.9 per cent after it cut profit predictions by 73 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.4 per cent to 108.50 in morning trade. Markets including those in China, Hong Kong and Singapore were closed for holidays.

Michael Beh

michaelwbeh@gmail.com

London

SABMiller’s shareholders were in a particularly buoyant mood, toasting the rise in the index amid talk that the brewer may expand soon. The company, along with Heineken, its Dutch rival, is thought to be among the leading contenders to buy the beer business of Foster’s, the Australian drinks group. SABMiller’s shares climbed to £10.86p.

The FTSE 100 rose 83.68 points to 4,902.45 as traders hoped that the US Government’s $700 billion (£394 billion) bank bailout plan may yet be passed.

However, it was a mixed session for banks. HBOS was the heaviest blue-chip faller, down almost 14 per cent amid speculation that its takeover by Lloyds TSB, could require repricing. Other heavyweight banks clawed back bigger losses from earlier in the session but still closed lower.

Icap, the interbroker dealer, led the index amid positive broker comments after a trading update on Monday.

Peter Stiff

peter.stiff@thetimes.co.uk

AGENDA

Preliminaries

Fidelity Asian Values

JPMorgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust

Perpetual Japanese

Sinclair Pharma

AGMs

ASOS

Fiske

EGMs

Mears

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