In London on Monday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4 percent to 5,429.7. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 reached another all-time high close, ending 0.4 percent higher at 7,930.2.

Volume was at 2.5 billion shares traded. Mobile phone operator Vodafone fell 1.8 percent to 151½p when an expected announcement concerning a cash return to shareholders was not forthcoming until interim results are released in November.

Exel gained 0.4 percent to £12.33 on confirmation of a bid worth £3.7 billion from Deutsche Post. In the pharmaceuticals sector, GlaxoSmithKline was up 1.3 percent to £13.80 on the news that its new postmenopausal osteoporosis drug, Bonviva, was approved for market by the European Union.

Crude oil prices that were up substantially helped the oil and gas sector to gains on the day. Oil and gas exploration company Burren Energy added 6.2 percent to 794p on positive interim results and on the news that three of its four wells in a Congo oil field are now online and producing over 52,000 barrels of oil per day.

Oil services group Hunting was up by 1.5 percent to 304½p on rumors that US companies are interested in acquiring it, while Expro International defied trends and lost 3.2 percent to 505p. Elsewhere in the sector, BG Group advanced by 3.1 percent to 539p, and BP and Cairn Energy each gained 1.8 percent, to 665p and £19.14 respectively. Cairn’s share price was an all-time high.

In London on Wednesday equities markets were a bit higher on a volume of 2.9 billion shares traded. The FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent to 5,347.4 as Deutsche Bank raised its target for the 100 to 5,550 by the end of the year and forecast that it would hit 5,850 by the end of next year, while FTSE 250 gained 0.4 percent on the day to close at 7,863.1.

Tobacco stocks were up on the day as analysts expected two US lawsuits against the tobacco industry to be dismissed at the appeals level, potentially leaving the industry less exposed to legal risk with only one major case, by the US Justice Department, still pending against US-linked tobacco companies.

This possibility left BAT up 1.5 percent to £11.72, Gallaher ahead by 1.1 percent to 864p, and Imperial Tobacco with a gain of 0.8 percent to £15.32. In the telecommunications sector, Vodafone advanced by 1.7 percent to 152½p on a positive assessment by Morgan Stanley. Clothing retailer Next added 2.6 percent to £14.90 in anticipation of its interim earnings report.

DSG International, which was previously known as Dixons, gained 1.3 percent to 154½p as Morgan Stanley’s initial assessment of the company gave it a rating of “equalweight” and a price target of 160p.

The Confederation of British Industry issued a revised economic forecast for the UK on Wednesday, now forecasting that the British economy will grow by 1.9 percent this year and by 2.2 percent next year.

These predictions are well below the UK government’s forecasts, issued in April, which stand at growth of 3 percent to 3.5 percent in 2005 and 2.25 to 2.75 percent next year.

The CBI is not the only group to cut its growth forecasts for the UK economy. The British Chambers of Commerce said Tuesday that they had cut their estimate of economic growth this year to 2 percent, while the Bank of England issued revised forecasts earlier this month that estimate this year’s UK economic growth at 2 percent and at 2.6 percent in 2006.

These lower forecasts are in line with data released in July by the Office for National Statistics, which said that the Gross Domestic Product had grown by 0.4 percent in the second quarter and by 1.7 percent in the first half. This was the slowest GDP growth since the first quarter of 1993.

The CBI also said Wednesday that business investment growth will only be 1.7 percent this year, less than half of last year’s 3.4 percent growth. Additionally, they said that fixed investment, which includes government investment, would grow by 3 percent this year, less than half of Treasury’s forecast of 6 percent to 6.25 percent growth.

The release of the minutes of the Bank of England monetary policy committee meeting minutes from their most recent meeting show that the committee approved this month’s UK interest rate cut by a close 5 to 4 vote.

The majority who voted for the rate cut argued that confidence would be damaged if the rate were not cut and that a small action now would eliminate the need for more drastic action later on. The four who voted against the cut, including the Bank’s governor and its executive director, were of the opinion that it was too early to judge that pressures toward inflation had eased.

And, in fact, July’s inflation figures showing that inflation was up to 2.3 percent tended to validate the reasoning of those members of the committee who voted against the rate cut. The vote was the first time the Bank’s governor had been in the minority on a rate decision vote since the monetary policy committee was created in 1997.

The release of the minutes showing the reasoning that led to the rate cut vote sent sterling to its highest level in relation to the euro since July 7. Sterling also gained against the US dollar. The advance of sterling was an indication of the belief that further interest rate cuts will not be forthcoming in the near future.

Businesses in Central London are apparently suffering from July’s terrorist attacks, as retail sales in shops there fell by 9 percent in July, according to a report by the British Retail Consortium.

The decline in London retail sales contributed to a decline of 1.9 percent in retails sales in the UK.

Excluding London sales numbers, sales on like items were flat in the month. While some analysts were pleased that the London figures did not affect UK sales as a whole more than they did, others worried that the full extent of the effect has not been felt yet.

Analysts say that it is not clear yet whether the events of July will lead to a lasting change in buying habits. Some analysts say that losses for central London retailers could translate into gains for retailers, as well as restaurants and leisure activity venues in the suburbs and out of town.

Meanwhile in its quarterly inflation report, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee does not seem overly concerned about the long-term effects of the July bombings on the UK economy.

British Airways resumed flights out of Heathrow Airport in London on Friday after the cancellation of over 620 flights in a two day period due to a dispute with a catering company that supplies the airline there.

The airline hopes to get 31 flights, both short-distance and long-haul, out of the airport by midnight on Friday and then to run 40 percent of its long-haul flights and 50 percent of it’s short-distance flights out of the airport on Saturday. Passengers who did manage to get on BA flights out of Heathrow were given food packages and vouchers by the airline because only drinks would be able to be offered on those flights.

BA flights out of other airports did have catering service. The disruption was made worse because around 1,000 BA employees walked out on Thursday in support of the caterer’s action, and flights resumed after those BA workers returned to their posts.

The disruption of flights affected 40,000 passengers on Thursday and 73,000 passengers on Friday, according to the airline. Analysts said that the cancellations could cost BA tens of millions of pounds, with one analyst estimate said that the disruption could cost the airline 10 million pounds per day during the stoppage and a great deal more in the long-term, depending on how potential customers view the event.

BA, meanwhile, said it was much too soon to say how much the disruption in flights would cost the air carrier.

The London equities markets closed in positive territory on Wednesday as the FTSE 100 gained 0.3 percent to 5,377.5 and the FTSE 250 was up 0.4 percent to 7,734.6 on a volume of 2.8 billion shares traded.

Life assurers saw advances in share value. South Africa-based life assurers Old Mutual gained 2.5 percent to 134p on better-than expected first half results and a forecast that its strong performance will last through the year. Aviv was up as well, by 2.2 percent to 657p, ahead of its first-half report and on confirmation that Lord Sharman was coming aboard as its new chairman.

Mobile phone company Vodafone gained 0.3 percent on the day to 147p on an assessment by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein that investors were not taking note of rising valuations of Japanese companies and the improvement in Vodafone’s operations in Japan.

Banks didn’t do as well, as Lloyds TSB lost 1.8 percent to 474p, Royal Bank of Scotland dropped 0.9 percent to £16.05, and HBOS was down 0.7 percent to 903 ½p. Other FTSE 100 decliners included oil company BP, which lost 0.8 percent to 653 ½p, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which was down by 0.7 percent to £25.90, and mining company Rio Tinto, which dropped 0.8 percent to £20.32.

Record label EMI, however, gained 3 percent to 254 ¼p on the news that it is in discussions to purchase New York-based independent label Wind-Up Records, which records Creed and Evanescence. The proposed purchase prices is said to be $125 million.

The biggest airport operator in the UK said on Wednesday that July passenger volumes were up despite an impact from the London bombings kept some passengers at home.

BAA Plc, which operates seven airports including Gatwick and Heathrow, said that passenger traffic grew by 2.6 percent in July compared to the same month last year, to 14.6 million passengers, a new record. The growth came due to the growth of low-cost airlines and recovery in the number of long-haul passengers.

Besides the terrorist attacks, growth was limited due to capacity constraints, especially at Heathrow, which is the world‘s busies international airport. BAA said that passenger traffic was down by 0.6 percent at Heathrow, but it was up by 3.3 percent at Gatwick and by 6.1 percent at Stansted.

Stansted is a base of operations for two low-cost air carriers, Ryanair and easyJet. Further, BAA said that all markets except for the European charter sector showed rises in passenger traffic. North Atlantic traffic was up by 1 percent, and other long-haul traffic rose by 7.5 percent in July.

Figure show that exports from the UK to non-European countries were up sharply in June. The Office for National Statistics, however, has said that the official figures might have to be revised if it is found that they are inflated to VAT fraud.

As reported, official data shows a rise of 15 percent in UK exports to non-European Union countries between May and June. This dropped the goods trade deficit to £1.4 billion.

Exports of goods to Europe were also up, by 2 percent, but the trade deficit in goods sold to European countries actually grew slightly, to £2.8 billion in June from £2.7 billion in May.

The issue that is of concern to the ONS is the practice of some to reclaim VAT on small items of relatively high value such as computer chips or mobile phones, saying that the goods will be exported.

This “missing trader fraud”, as it is known, tends to artificially inflate data on exports. The ONS, along with Revenue and Customs, are currently investigating whether this sort of activity is going on within the European Union.

A spokesman for the ONS said that while that office does not know just yet exactly what is going on or how widespread the fraud might be, it was decided that it would be prudent to announce that the currently reported figures are not certain.

Shares in UK biotechnology company Acambis rose by over three percent on Thursday on the news that the company is in the process of developing a new flu vaccine that could give lifetime protection from all strains of the flu.

If the new vaccine is successful it would be a significant breakthrough at a time when health care officials are increasingly worried that a flu pandemic could spread globally, especially in light of the emerging problem of bird flu spreading to humans.

Such a vaccine would be especially important because of the current long delays in developing vaccines when new strains of flu emerge. Acambis is working with Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, a Belgian research center, in the development and licensing of the vaccine.

This is the second bit of good news from Acambis in two weeks. The company said recently that it has a vaccine in trials that could prove to be the first effective treatment for clostridium difficile, a new “super bug” that has been seen in outbreaks in 15 UK hospitals.

In London on Wednesday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.1 percent to close at 5,332.3 after having fallen 23 points early. Meanwhile the FTSE 250 managed another all-time high, gaining 0.5 percent to 7,675.4. 2.7 billion shares were traded on the day.

The mining sector was key in the day’s gains. Shares in Rio Tinto gained 3.7 percent to £19.86 on a first-half report that they more than doubled their underlying earnings in comparison with first-half results last year.

Antofagasta advanced by 3.5 percent to £13.39, BHP Billiton was up 3.3 percent to 837p, and Xstrata added 2.6 percent to £12.45 after it announced a joint venture with Anglo Platinum to develop a mine.

Plasterboard maker BPH gained 3.7 percent to 734p even after it rejected two bids from French company Saint-Gobain, as investors expect another bid to be made. Amvescap lost 1 percent to 416p when UBS said that a bid from CI Financial would probably not be successful and raised the target price for the funds management group to 450p from 330p.

Rumors that Amvescap might be involved in a bid for Henderson Group, a mid-cap fund management company, sent Henderson’s shares up 1.1 percent to 68 ¼p.

Most analysts expect that the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will cut UK interest rates from 4.75 percent to 4.5 percent when it meets on Thursday. However, the move is not seen as the beginning of a series of declines in rates but more as a “fine-tuning” of the economy, according to one analyst.

Many business leaders have been calling for the cut in rates due to concerns about economic growth and consumer spending as well as the advent of a recession among manufacturers. Many retailers have reported declines in sales figures, and data shows that manufacturing output contracted by 0.7 percent in the second quarter after an even larger drop in output of 0.9 percent in the first quarter.

There was one piece of good news for the economy, however, that some analysts believe will make members of the monetary policy committee think twice before cutting rates. The services Purchasing Managers Index as reported by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply shows business activity up to 56.3 from a reading of 55.8 at last report. Any figure above 50 denotes growth.

One analyst said that while a rate cut Thursday was not assured, it was still likely due to weak growth of the gross domestic product and falling employment figures. Interest rates in the UK have been at their present level for a year.

Rail, coach, and bus company National Express has seen profits rise by 80 percent in the first half of the year, mostly on a rise in the number of passengers it carries, it announced on Thursday.

The company, which operates thirty percent of the passenger trains in the UK, said that its rail division’s profits were £27.1 million in the period ending June 30.

Profits were only £15 million last year at the same time. The number of passengers served rose by 4 percent.

The company’s coach division also saw good performance from its coach division, where operating profits rose from £2 million a year ago to £4.1 million in the first half of this year. Its bus division, however, saw profits fall from £19.6 million to £18.2.

Overall, pre-tax profits were £58.1 million, an increase of 47.5 percent from the first half of 2004, and it said that it expects its full-year pre-tax earnings to total £130 million.

Despite the rise in profits, National Express saw share prices fall 15.5p to 878.5p in the wake of the announcement.

Not everyone saw the news as a good thing, as the general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union called the profits “obscene” and said that the company’s profits were an example of a company more interested in making money for its shareholders than in providing good service for passengers.

The UK’s Environmental Agency, which currently regulates chemical companies, power plants, and waste disposal companies, has said that it is considering prosecuting retailers if the businesses which supply them produce illegal waste.

In a report published Thursday, the agency said that it is prepared to prosecute even businesses it does not directly regulate and will hold them accountable for the environmental performance of those companies they get their products from.

These retailers would be liable even if they produce no waste themselves. In addition, the agency is looking to impose harsher sanctions on violators, even to the point of seizing equipment used in their operations and using anti-social behavior orders (Asbo), introduced in 1999 as a way to fight petty crime, to restrict businesses from engaging in one specific activity. In one 2004 case, an Asbo was used to stop a business owner from burning his customers’ waste.

Friends of the Earth has welcomed the use of Asbos in environmental enforcement. The Confederation of British Industry, the UK’s largest employers’ group, has however said that a distinction needs to be made between deliberate violators and businesses with good records on the environment that just made a mistake.

The CBI warns that the agency’s broadening of its focus beyond the pursuit of companies that flout environmental rules will cause it to stretch its resources too thinly.

The Office of Fair Trading has warned credit card companies in the UK that they must cut their penalty charges to customers who pay their bills late or they may face penalties themselves.

The OFT has written letters to eight unnamed banks that cover the majority of the credit card market in the UK, telling them that it has found the penalties of £20 to £25 charged when a payment is late or a credit limit is exceeded to be “excessive” and “unfair”.

The letters warned the banks that they have three months to either lower the charges or to address the concerns of the regulator in some other way, with the further warning that if the banks do not comply they will face court action to force them to do so.

Barclaycard, in confirming that they were one of the banks contacted by the OFT, said that they believe the fees they charge are fair and that customers can avoid them by simply paying their bills on time and not exceeding their credit limits, and it said that it has no plans to cut its penalty charges.

Other banks that service credit cards made similar arguments. Consumer groups hailed the OFT’s efforts but worried that if the fees are cut it could lead to higher interest rates.

In London on Monday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.6 percent to 5,270.7 while the FTSE 250 barely moved at all, adding only 3.1 points to 7,498.9 as trade was relatively slow at just 2.6 billion shares.

The oil sector was strong in both the blue chip and mid-cap categories as Lehman Brothers predicted that crude oil would stay at $50 per barrel for the upcoming four years.

BP was up 2.6 percent to 642 ½p on Lehman’s increase of its price per share target from 550p to 610p. Royal Dutch Shell was also up as its A shares gained 0.5 percent to £17.57 and its B shares were up by 0.2 percent to £17.98.

Lehman’s advanced target prices from £16.00 to £19 for both sets of shares. Meanwhile, in the mid-caps, Premier Oil gained 4.5 percent to 698 ½p, Hardman Resources was up 5.1 percent to 103p, Buirren Energy added 5.7 percent to 723p, Paladin Resources gained 3.6 percent to 250 ½p, and First Calgary Petroleums was up by 8.5 percent to 382 ½p.

Oil service companies also benefited, such as Wood Group, which was up 2.8 percent to 200 ¼p as Lehman raised its target price to 210p, up from 160p. In the tobacco sector, after Morgan Stanley raised its target price from £10.50 to £11.50, British American Tobacco gained 2.7 percent to £10.76.

Retailer Woolworths lost 0.7 percent after an update that showed no signs of improvement, as sales and gross margins both fell.

In the London equities markets, the FTSE 100 closed the week at 5,241.8, up 0.4 percent for the day and 0.2 percent for the week. The FTSE 250 ended the day Friday at 7,495.8, also up 0.4 percent for the day and 0.3 percent on the week.

It was a week of some confusion as Royal Dutch Shell began trading as a single entity but still has two share quotes on the London Stock Exchange. Shares from the Dutch portion of the company are now listed as “A” shares, and shares from the UK portion of the business, Shell Transport & Trading, are now known as “B” shares. The “A” shares were down 0.3 percent on Friday to close at £17.48 and “B” shares fell 0.2 percent to £17.95.0.2 per cent to £17.95.

Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping lost a huge 32.7 percent on a Patent Office ruling against it and in favor of Statoil over data collection and analysis in the detection of offshore oil and gas reserves. Shares in OHM closed at 144p.

Among a number of rumors on takeovers, plasterboard manufacturer BPB gained 6.9 percent to 693 ½p on top of a 26.5 percent gain on Thursday as French company Saint-Gobain announced that it has approached BPB with the goal of acquiring the company.

Analysts said that a number of factors will affect the outcome of the bid, including how much of a dilution in the value of shares BPB’s shareholders will accept and how attractive shareholders consider the offer to be.

In the UK on Tuesday, the Department of Trade and Industry continued to pursue its plan to limit the liability of auditing firms from lawsuits when audits they carry out do not prevent the collapse of companies. Legislation on the matter will go before Parliament in the autumn.

The goal in limiting liability when lawsuits are filed against auditors after the companies they have audited go bankrupt is to make sure that there remain enough auditing firms to ensure a competitive market. With unlimited liability, auditing firms have become the lawsuit target of choice after companies they have audited have no more resources due to bankruptcy or collapse.

Although auditing firms welcome this new limited financial liability, the trade-off is that they can now be held liable for criminal charges if their recklessness causes a company to fold.

Previously, they could only be called to account in the criminal courts for deliberate fraud or theft. The new rules on limiting liability of auditing firms does not put a specific cap on how much the firms can be sued for, but instead calls for proportionate liability according to the amount of blame for a company’s collapse that can be assigned to them.

In London on Monday, the FTSE 100 lost 16.6 points to close at 5,214.2 on profit-taking from recent gains, while the FTSE 250 was down 35.8 points, closing at 7,435.0. Three billion shares were traded on the day.

Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus, whose shares have gained 120 percent in the last two years, lost 3.8 percent to 44 ¾p when Oriel Securities gave the company a “sell” rating and set a target price of only 25p per share on the stock due to declines in steel prices, the addition of capacity far beyond the growth in demand within the sector, and the continuing high cost of raw materials.

UBS, on the other hand, did not put a “sell” recommendation on Corus despite its evaluation that adverse factors in the sector could hurt the company. ITV was down as well, by 3.4 percent to 121 ½p on the news that a possible takeover bid had fallen apart due to concerns about ITV’s pension fund deficit.

Private equity firm Apax and Time Warner had been linked to the bid. On the positive side, fixed-line telecommunications group Cable & Wireless saw the value of their shares gain 2.4 percent to 147 ½p on the news that it has been talking with its smaller rival Energis about a takeover. Rumors of such a move have circulated for the past two years but have gained strength in the past month.

Ernst & Young say the number of profits warnings issued by companies publicly listed in the UK have risen to their highest number since November of 2001.

There were 42 such warnings issued in April and 97 in the full second quarter of the year, and there profits warnings are running at a level of 2 per day this month.

The highest number of second quarter warnings in any sector was 13, from the support services sector and from media and entertainment businesses, while general retailers issued 10 profits warnings.

This is seen as a reflection of a slowing economy, and was used to continue calls for rate cuts by the Bank of England.

In London, the equities markets closed down on Friday. The FTSE 100 lost 0.6 percent on to close at 5,230.80, almost even for the week, while the FTSE 250 fell 0.5 percent on the day to 7,470.8, an 0.6 percent decline on the week.

The biggest losers for the week were the oil companies, as the oil and gas sector fell 3.7 percent for the week, with the biggest individual losers being BP, Shell, and BG Group.

BP’s losses were capped by the revelation on Tuesday that one of its drilling platforms had been damaged by Hurricane Dennis, while Shell had to admit on Thursday that one of it’s gas projects was going to cost twice the originally estimated price.

Friday’s big winners were companies that use a great deal of fuel. British Airways gained 1.6 percent to 276 ¾p, while EasyJet was up 2.8 percent to 264p.

Banks didn’t do as well, as Royal Bank of Scotland lost 0.8 percent to £17.53 on a downgrade fro Cazenove and HBOS lost 0.8 percent to 889p on a ratings cut by CSFB.

According to a study carried out by AEA Technology for the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, while the importation of food incurs costs in terms of congestion, accidents, noise, and pollution, that does not necessarily mean that growing food in the UK for domestic consumption is the less expensive alternative.

The study claims that the social and environmental costs of food transport is around £9 billion per year, over half of that due to road congestion (£5 billion) and accidents (£2 billion) that take over 300 lives per year.

However, the study also concludes that much of the impact and costs of transporting food depend on which mode of transport is used, as transport by ship has much less environmental impact than moving food by air, and the bulk of all emissions come from moving food by heavy goods vehicles, 25 percent of which is devoted to the transport of food in Britain.

Additionally, the report noted that the highest impact in food transportation comes from the consumer driving to the supermarket to buy food. The average consumer in the UK drives 900 miles per year to buy food.

The report also points out that it costs, for example, less energy to import tomatoes from Spain, where they can be grown using natural heat from the sun than it does to grow them in gas-heated hothouses in Britain.

Similarly, the report claims that as long as not too much energy is used to move it around once it arrives in the UK, it costs less to grow wheat organically outside the UK and transport it here than it does to grow it the conventional way at home.

A spokesperson for Friends of the Earth took issue with the reports conclusions, saying that locally produced foods are much better for the environment, but that local and national government must support that effort.

The quarterly economic survey issued by the British Chamber of Commerce says that all indicators point to a slowdown coming in the service sector in the UK, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy. The survey, which looks at 5,801 UK companies, found that export orders for firms in the service sector are at their lowest level in 15 months.

Additionally, plans for capital expenditures and employment expectations are down in both the service and manufacturing sectors. The survey also indicated that gross domestic product growth in the second quarter was 0.5 percent, only slightly above the 0.4 percent growth in the first quarter. If this slow growth is confirmed, said an economic adviser to the BCC, the organization would likely revise its annual growth forecast downward for the second time this year, to 2 percent.

In London on Thursday, the FTSE 100 gained 13.8 points to 5,259.7, but the FTSE 250 lost 33.0 points to 7,508.7 on a volume of 3.5 billion shares traded.

UBS upgraded the price targets of oil companies BP, Shell, and BG Group. BP’s target was raised to 700p, up 13 percent, while Shell and BG Group were each upgraded by 14 percent.

This sent shares in BP up 0.6 percent to 625 ½p, while Shell gained 0.8 percent to 549p and BG Group was up 0.1 percent to 469 ¼p.

In the financial sector, asset management group Schroeders gained 2 percent to 810 ½p, while Man Group, the hedge fund manager, was up 1.9 percent to £15.46.

The London Stock Exchange, target of takeover bids by Deutsche Börse and Euronext, might instead be looking to make acquisitions of its own.

At a shareholder meeting on Wednesday, the chairman of the LSE, Chris Gibson-Smith, said that the LSE could make an acquisition if it would be of value to shareholders, but that the exchange might one day surprise everyone.

He would not elaborate further.

He did say that the exchange was keeping “an open mind” about a deal with the groups that had made bids for the LSE, but that any deal would have to be of benefit to both the LSE and its shareholders.

Meanwhile, the LSE reported that in the quarter ending June 30 had upped turnover by 13 percent to £67.7 million.

The banking sector on Wednesday helped the FTSE 100 post a gain of 28.7 points to close at 5,245.9, while the FTSE 250 gained 4.5 points to 7,541.7 on a volume of 2.9 billion shares traded.

The gains in the banking sector came as Goldman Sachs touted the stocks to its clients for reasons ranging from good volume growth to high dividend yields. HBOS gained 1.9 percent to 891 p, while Northern Rock was up 1.3 percent to 823 ½p.

Goldman Sachs had rated both banks at “outperform”. In addition, Royal Bank of Scotland gained 1.2 percent to £17.38, HSBC was up 1.5 percent to 911 ½p, and Barclays added 1.3 percent to 571p.

Another “outperform” rating from Goldman Sachs sent mobile phone company Vodafone up 0.4 percent to 143p. Utilities struggled, with Scottish Power down 1.5 percent to 449 ¾p and United Utilities losing 1.2 percent to £10.70.

Investigators from the European Commission raided the offices of Intel EMEA on Tuesday, looking for evidence that the chipmaker has violated European Union antitrust laws.

Intel confirmed that two offices, one in Munich and the other in Swindon, were entered as part of an ongoing investigation into Intel’s business dealings. The investigation is also looking at Intel’s distribution partners as well as at PC makers which use Intel’s chips.

An Intel spokesman said that the company is cooperating with the investigation, but that it believes its activities are fair and legal. The investigation into whether Intel has tried to eliminate competition for its product - which was begun after a complaint by Intel competitor AMD - began in 2001 but was suspended earlier in the year when no evidence of wrongdoing was found.

In March, however, investigators in Japan found that Intel had in fact engaged in anticompetitive behavior by offering rebates to several PC makers if they would refrain from buying chips from AMD. Intel denied that it had done anything wrong in Japan, but AMD re-filed its accusations with the EC, spurring the re-opening of the investigation there.

In London on Tuesday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.5 percent to 5,217.2, while the FTSE 250 was up 0.4 percent to 7,537.2 on a volume of 2.7 billion shares traded, and Deutsche bank raised its target for the FTSE 100 from 5,250 to 5,450 by year’s end.

Telecommunications companies found themselves in positive territory. Virgin Mobile gained 2.1 percent to 260p on a “buy” recommendation and target price of 300p from ABN Amro. O2 gained 1.7 percent to 138p, while Vodafone was up 1.1 percent to 142½p.

The biggest loser among blue-chip stocks was Man Group, which was off by 3.4 percent to £15. 17. The hedge fund manager was down on a smaller than expected rise in funds under its management as well as the announcement that bad currency movements had cost the company $600 million since March.

There are a number of key reasons why someone may want to sell house fast:

1. Moving abroad, and need to move into their overseas property without the hassle of managing one in the UK;
2. Caught up in a property chain, leaving the seller unable to move into a new property elsewhere in the country
3. Debt or divorce issues, meaning that assets need to be liquidated in order to pay our or share out debts

In such instances, there are a range of property buyers who represent private or public property investment companies, who can provide money up front to purchase a property.

The result of involving cash buyers for homes is usually a fast and hassl-free sale, avoiding the traditional sales lock up of a chain.

So if you find yourself looking to sell your house, without having to wait around too long to do so, you can run a search for local property investment companies in your area, and see if they may be interested in making a cash purchase on your home.

British Airways will begin on Monday to charge passengers an increased fuel surcharge, it was announced on Friday.

After BA’s announcement, Virgin Atlantic said that they, too, will raise their fuel surcharge.

BA called the increase, its fourth since it began adding a fuel surcharge to passenger tickets in May of last year, “unavoidable.” Previous increases have not seemed to slow ticket sales.

The new surcharges include a 50 percent rise on tickets originating in the UK, up from £16 to £24 per flight leg, or by £48 for return trips, and a rise from £6 to £8 on shorter flights in Europe.

Virgin Atlantic’s increases will also go up to £24 per flight leg.

The director general of the International Air Transport Association has said in the past that rising oil prices were making airlines worldwide unprofitable and that the industry will see losses of $6 billion this year, the fifth year in a row of losses.

BA said that its fuel bill would go up by approximately £450 million this year, to £1.6 billion, 16 percent of its total costs. Virgin Atlantic says that its fuel bill is 22 percent of its costs.

Other airlines are expected to raise their fuel surcharges soon.