City London Financial News

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.25 percent, or 83.82 points, to 33,338.70, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.01 percent, or 0.34 points, to 2,306.03. The dollar fetched 144.68 yen in Asian trade, against 144.44 yen seen Tuesday in London.

A strike among B.C. cargo loaders at some of Canada’s biggest ports might push prices higher for consumers across the country if the work stoppage stretches much longer, experts say.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is currently involved in a legal battle over his proposal to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) in the city. Five Conservative-led councils have challenged the expansion in court, arguing that Khan's actions are unlawful. The court proceedings began today, and the verdict will be delivered at a later date.

Made on a shoestring budget of Rs 2.5 crore, Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Satya’ went on to be a bona-fide success at the box-office, earning Rs 15 crore. It also kickstarted the career of two Bollywood veterans — actor Manoj Bajpai and director Anurag Basu (who co-wrote the film with actor-screenwriter Saurabh Shukla) who would go on to be the doyens of indie/art films in Bollywood. The ‘Satya’ cast recently went on a trip down the memory lane.

Global stock markets are mostly higher after Australia's central bank kept its key lending rate unchanged and Wall Street hit a 15-month high

Elon Musk-led Twitter was hit by yet another lawsuit last week over non-payment of bills and rent. Australian project management firm Facilitate Corp has sought about A$1 million ($665,000) from Twitter over work done in four countries in the past year. The revelation came even as Twitter was forced to limit the number of posts users could see each day in a bid to lessen strains on Twitter’s servers.

Issuers in a controversial corner of the $6.4 trillion ESG debt market are building in clauses that allow them to sidestep financial penalties, according to BloombergNEF.

Blackpink set the stage on fire in London last night. The four-member group's energetic performance at London's BST Hyde Park had fans screaming and dancing from start to finish. The show kicked off with a bang, as Blackpink took the stage to the sound of their hit song "Whistle." The girls then proceeded with a setlist of their biggest hits, including «DDU-DU DDU-DU,» «Kill This Love,» and «How You Like That.» The four-member group have been at several places recently and they have made sure to make an impact. Notably, it also became one of the first to perform at Coachella in April. Despite a slight delay, Blackpink started their set with energetic bangers like 'Pink Venom,' 'How You Like That' and 'Pretty Savage.' Their fiery choreography captivates the audience from start to finish. Blackpink members showcase their individual talents in their concerts. Jennie performs «You & Me» and «Solo,» Jisoo enchants with «Flower,» Rosé sings «Gone» and «On The Ground,» and Lisa performs an explicit version of «Money» that gets the crowd grooving.

Operations jobs in investment banks have a seemingly well-deserved reputation for being a bit dull. When Goldman Sachs managing director Rebecca Anderton-Davies worked in operations, she found it very boring. "I didn’t love the work, which mainly involved repetitive tasks such as checking the basic time/date/amount/account details against the equivalent entries from other banks," she wrote in her recent autobiography, observing that it was — however, better than her previous job of stacking supermarket shelves. 

Morgan Stanley might be cutting 3,000 jobs, but that’s not stopping it picking up some good deals in a competitive jobs market.

London-basedhedge fund Marshall Wace has been doing some heavy hiring. And not just of analysts and portfolio managers.

Bank of America has become the latest bank to cut people in London.

Thames Water’s travails this week are shining a harsh light on what has hitherto been a highly lucrative place to work: Macquarie's European infrastructure business. 

Although Lazard's cuts are numbered in the 100s and won't amount tomuch at all in London, there was much in last week's Lazard investor call to give junior investment bankers the fear. — The «deterioration» in the external environment, the bald statement that there's no sign of «bouncing back,» the admission that higher junior banker salaries are causing a problem. And now there are signs that Morgan Stanley feels the same.

SYDNEY (Reuters) — An Australian project management firm has filed a lawsuit against Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) in a U.S. court seeking cumulative payments of about A$1 million ($665,000) over alleged non-payment of bills for work done in four countries, court filings showed.

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, who has announced his retirement, is one of those who are penny wise — as well as pound wise. When Parekh was doing his articleship in London after studying accountancy, he planned to celebrate his 21st birthday with three friends. He prepared the budget for the party: two shillings and six pence for each of the three guests. Shilling was a British coin one-twentieth of a pound which was discontinued in 1971. A shilling had 12 pence. In today's rupee terms, it translates to nearly 12.5 rupees for each. He told them that they could have whatever they wanted within that budget. But when drinks started flowing, Parekh's meticulous budget all went awry. He ended up with a 'grand' bill of 13 shillings. His friends had to shell out the difference, and, till date, they hold him to ransom for that party. That value of frugality and that strict measure of money stayed forever with Parekh. Unlike his birthday party budget, his home mortgage business, which he joined nearly a decade later, never went awry. At 78, when he is retiring from HDFC, it is merging with its arm HDFC Bank, turning into a Rs 1,600 crore financial behemoth, the second biggest company by market cap in India after Reliance Industries and the fourth biggest bank in the world.

Stop Oil movement were arrested for attempting to halt the procession in central London. Images circulated on social media showed police removing the demonstrators who had managed to briefly halt the march. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that the arrests were made on grounds of public nuisance offenses. Prior to the start of the parade, LGBTQ+ members of Just Stop Oil called on Pride organizers to cease accepting sponsorship money from «high-polluting industries.» The activists urged the LGBTQ+ community to reject partnerships with such companies, emphasizing the environmental impact and the need for a clean energy transition.

«We all have triggers and layers of fears way deeper than what is shown, and that’s why I walked offstage to calm down and make sure myself, band and crew, and the crowd all felt safe to continue,» she added. This was the second incident after singer Pink recently witnessed a fan throwing her mother’s ashes at her concert. Singer Charlie Puth has requested fans to stop throwing things on stage, saying it is not only disrespectful but also dangerous. «This trend of throwing things at performers while they are on stage must come to an end. (Bebe, Ava, AND NOW Kelsea Ballerini…) It’s so disrespectful and very dangerous. Please just enjoy the music I beg of you,” he tweeted.

BST Hyde Park began in London on June 23 and has a star-studded line-up of artists for 2023. Among the main artists, this year are South Korean girl band Blackpink, who will be making their UK festival debut at BST. This is the tenth-anniversary edition of the BST Hyde Park festival. It takes place over weekends in June and July, with the 2023 weekend dates being June 23, 24, 25, and 30, and July 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Renaissance artist and historian Giorgio Vasari has been returned to its owners in Tuscany more than 20 years after it was stolen, Italian police said on Thursday. The letter was dated March 18, 1566 and is believed to be worth around 20,000 euros ($21,760).

Klimt sold Tuesday for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4 million), making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe. 'Dame mit Facher' — Lady with a Fan — sold to a buyer in the room at Sotheby's in London after a 10-minute bidding war for a hammer price of 74 million pounds ($94.35 million). The higher final figure includes a charge on top of the sale price known as the buyer's premium.