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Westpac has grown its mortgage book ahead of its rivals for the third month running, accelerating competition between retail banks where margins are already under intense pressure.

Superannuation and investing start-up Spaceship, which is backed by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, is sounding the market for potential buyers once again.

Peter Alexander, the Premier Investments-owned sleepwear brand targeting an overseas expansion is worth between $999 million and $1.59 billion, according to investment bank analysts working to place a valuation on the business ahead of a potential spin-off and ASX listing.

Tesla shipped 435,059 cars globally in the third quarter, as factory downtime led to its first delivery decline in more than a year.

Australian coal export sales will fall faster than expected because higher volumes over the next two years will not be enough to offset a 46 per cent collapse in shipment values, official forecasts show.

The Emirati president-designate of the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks has called on oil and gas companies to be “central to the solution” to fighting climate change as the industry boosts its production to enjoy rising energy prices

Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights! Click here! Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday today offered prayers at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Congress MP will also participate in volunteer service at the Sachkhand Shri Harmandir Sahib.

Nitish Kumar on Monday released findings of Bihar's caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute 63 per cent of the state’s total population. The Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment in Bihar followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent.

The highly-mutated Covid variant Pirola has now spread to «most regions in the UK» with experts anticipatinga further surge in infections as the country heads into autumn. UK's Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) said that the strain has been spotted in most parts of the UK. “The BA.2.86 continues to transmit across the UK, with isolated cases being detected in various regions,” a spokesperson for the agency said. UKHSA Chief Medical Advisor Susan Hopkins said, “While this is still very early data and more research is needed before we can be certain, it is encouraging to see an initial indication that BA.2.86 demonstrates similar levels of antibody escape compared to other variants circulating in the UK. Hopkins further said that there was no evidence to suggest that Pirola strain can make people seriously ill. «The data is too limited, but there is so far no evidence to suggest that the strain is more likely to make people seriously ill than other Omicron variants in circulation. She also urged people to take a booster dose for protection against the new variant. “The autumn vaccination programme started this month, and this new data shows once again how important it is that the most vulnerable among us are fully vaccinated in order to receive the greatest possible protection.

Science Advances says. The pollen data showed that warming temperatures supported forests that expanded into Siberia and facilitated early human migration there, researchers from the University of Kansas, US, said in their study. They compared Pleistocene vegetation communities around Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, to the oldest archeological traces of Homo sapiens in the region.

Remunerations paid to top bosses in corporate India are increasingly coming under scrutiny, just as the gap between salaries of workers and top bosses widens. The widening gap Jayadev Galla, CMD of Amara Raja Batteries, took home over Rs 52 crore as compensation in FY23. That was about 1,872 times the median salary of the company's employees. Amara Raja Batteries heads the list of top 10 companies with the widest gap between CEO pay and median employee remuneration. An analysis of Nifty 500 companies that had released their annual reports for FY23 showed several small- and mid-cap, promoter-driven companies such as Amber Enterprises, JK Paper, Balkrishna Ind and Ratnamani Metals in the top 10, ET had reported in August.

dollar bonds of Vedanta Resources slipped, with one dropping the most in more than three weeks, on news Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal is planning to overhaul his sprawling conglomerate to tackle its debts. All four junk-rated notes were indicated lower on Monday, Bloomberg-compiled data showed. The August 2024 bond posted the biggest drop, down 0.6 cents on the dollar to 62.6 cents at 1:45 p.m. in Hong Kong, its biggest decline in more than three weeks. Of the four bonds, three were trading below the 80 cents-on-the-dollar mark typically considered distressed. With roughly $3 billion of US-currency bonds coming due over the next two years, the mining company needs to come up with cash. The board of India-based Vedanta Ltd. approved a plan to separate the business into six listed companies, according to an announcement on Friday. That step, if successful, would pave the way for low-growth assets to be spun off for cash, while allowing investors to bet on some of the company’s newer ambitions, such as semiconductors. The split-up is expected to be completed in the financial year ending March 2025. Parent Vedanta Resources has a $1 billion bond due in January 2024.

By Karin Strohecker and Sumanta Sen

Mint’s macro tracker provides a monthly comprehensive report on the state of the economy, based on trends in 16 high-frequency indicators. For each indicator, the value in each month is assigned a colour-coding (red, amber and green) to denote where it lies relative to the five-year average (worse, in line, or better).

₹1.2 trillion worth of projects were announced by companies during the July-September period, compared to ₹6.6 trillion in the preceding quarter. This marked a whopping decline of 82% since the June quarter, and 77% since the same quarter a year ago. The figures are provisional and may be updated later.

Gandhi Jayanti falling on October 3, following the weekend, the number of tourists heading to the destination was expected to go up. In the clip shared by a user on X, it could be seen that the vehicles are almost at a standstill, and some of the commuters are themselves trying to find a way out. Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here! “There is utter chaos.

Click here! L'Oreal organises this showcase every year and Aishwarya made her Paris ramp debut in 2018, and she has been a regular since then. Also gracing the show were renowned celebrities such as Anya Taylor Joy, Yara Shahidi, academy winner producer and actress Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson and Tennis player Emma Raducanu.

US stock futures rose and Treasuries fell after a deal was reached on the weekend to avoid an American government shutdown. Traders are waiting to hear remarks from Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell later Monday.

The residential property segment in India remained unstoppable in Q3 2023, despite the usually slow monsoon quarter. According to the latest Anarock Research data, Q3 2023 saw housing sales across the top 7 cities create another new peak with approximately 1,20,280 units sold, against approximately 88,230 units in Q3 2022. Data shows that there has been a 36% annual sales growth in the residential housing segment.

The demand for RuPay credit cards rose 37% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) in July-September due to a rise in demand in tier 2, tier-3, and tier-4 towns and cities, according to a recent study by financial technology platform Zet.