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Your support makes all the difference.Russia lifts gold secrecy
Russia lifted its veil of secrecy over gold production and exports yesterday, forecasting steady production in 1993 and promising a 'balanced and moderate approach' to selling gold on world markets.
Yevgeny Bychkov, chairman of the precious metals committee, told a rare news conference that Russia had produced 146 tonnes of gold in 1992 and expected to produce the same in 1993.
Diamond threat, page 21
French jobless up
France's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 10.9 per cent in April from 10.7 per cent in March as the number out of work rose by 38,000 to 2.73 million.
SIB injunction
The Securities and Investments Board has obtained injunctions in the High Court in London to prevent Peter Glennie from carrying on unauthorised investment business. SIB believes he has been selling life insurance and pension plans. Mr Glennie trades as John Allen & Company from 7 High Street, Maidenhead, and 20 Cambridge Street, Aylesbury. Mr Glennie also sells general insurance policies from these offices.
BHP unloads Newcrest
Broken Hill Proprietary said it is selling its 23 per cent stake in Newcrest Mining to a spread of local and overseas institutional investors. Recently, Newmont Mining sold its remaining 14 per cent stake in Newcrest into the market.
Exchange approved
Sir Bryan Carsberg, Director-General of Fair Trading, has given his approval to the application of New York Mercantile Exchange to become a recognised investment exchange in the UK.
Addis closure
Addis, the plastics group, said it was closing its Hertford factory with the loss of about 275 jobs. About 50 workers will be offered transfers.
Housing lift
Taylor Woodrow's chairman, Colin Parsons, told the annual meeting that UK housing reservations so far this year were up 90 per cent on the same period of 1992.
Capitol rise
Gary Gersh, whose career in the music business started in the Capitol Records mailroom, is to succeed Hale Milgrim as president and chief executive of the recording label. Mr Gersh, 37, had been a senior vice president for artists and repertoire since 1985 at Geffen Records, where he signed or worked with such acts as Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Ricki Lee Jones and Pat Metheny.
NEC shows loss
NEC, Japan's biggest producer of chips and personal computers, posted its first loss in almost 20 years on Friday. NEC posted a group pre-tax loss of Y37.69bn in the year ending in March after a Y51.45bn profit in 1991/2. Sales slid 6.9 per cent to Y3,510bn.
World Markets
New York: The Dow Jones Industrial average showed heavy falls after a bond sell-off, but recovered late to close down 27.40 points at 3,527.43.
Tokyo: Uncertainty over the outlook for the yen and futures-linked selling left the market little changed. The Nikkei average eased 8.04 points to 20,844.59.
Hong Kong: After rising on news of resumption of Sino-British talks on the airport project, shares fell prey to profit-taking and the Hang Seng dropped 49.33 to 7,397.91.
Sydney: With gold stocks still leading the way, the All Ordinaries index gained 11.3 points to 1,760.4.
Bombay: Sales curbs imposed by the exchange authorities slowed the rate of decline, but the index still gave up 52 points to 2,164.
Zurich: Consolidating recent gains ahead of the holiday weekend, the SPI firmed 1.52 points to 1,414.25.
Paris: A 15.89-point decline lowered the CAC-40 index to 1,888.7.
Frankfurt: The DAX index ended a dull session 2.62 down at 1,631.85.
Milan: Strong gains by the STET telecommunications group spread to other sectors and pulled the market off its early lows. The MIB closed 0.17 per cent lighter at 1,192.
London: Report, page 21.
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