* FTSE 100 flat after Thursday's 2.1 pct slump * Investors jittery ahead of long weekend * Morgan Stanley downgrades Next on valuation By Toni Vorobyova LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Britain's leading shares ...

STOCKS ----------------------- India's main BSE index inches up 0.05 percent while the broader NSE index gains 0.26 percent, tracking mildly stronger Asian shares. GOVERNMENT BONDS -------------------------------- ...

* Power price rise may hit consumer support for green energy * IEA says investors must be given stable policy framework * IEA criticises German go-it alone approach By Vera Eckert FRANKFURT, May 24 (Reuters) ...

COPENHAGEN, May 24 (Reuters) - Denmark's Novo Nordisk said it expects to launch its liraglutide obesity treatment in the Unites States at the end of next year or start of 2015 after Phase III results late ...

NAIROBI, May 24 (Reuters) - Kenyan tea and coffee producer Sasini reported a 61 percent rise in its first-half pretax profit on Friday, which it said was mostly due to higher tea and coffee sales and better ...

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Co-operative Bank said on Friday it had stopped offering loans to new business customers, in a move designed to quell growing concerns over its capital position. A spokesman ...

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.1 pct, Euro STOXX 50 up 0.3 pct * Technical traders step in as charts show rally is intact * Smiths Group up 1 pct after update shows growth By Francesco Canepa LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) ...

Asian stocks fell to one-month lows on Friday and the yen rebounded broadly as extreme volatility in the Nikkei kept investors on edge. The Nikkei has soared nearly 70 percent since November, off the back ...

May 24 (Reuters) - British IT equipment supplier Computacenter Plc said it planned to return 75 million pounds ($113 million), or 10.8 percent of its market capitalization, to shareholders. Computacenter ...

May 24 (Reuters) - Petroceltic International Plc said it would abandon an exploration well off the Bulgarian coast that failed to yield enough gas to justify commercial production, sending its shares down ...

May 24 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media on Friday: * Toshiba Corp and U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co LP KKR.N are among those expected to bid for Panasonic ...

WARSAW, May 24 (Reuters) - Polish builder Polimex said on Friday its creditors agreed not to break off a debt restructuring deal after the company breached one of the covenants defined by the agreement. ...

* Benchmark yield stays well below 1 pct threshold * Meiji Yasuda Life says can start buying 10-yr JGBs at 1 pct * Superlong tenor outperforms on bargain-hunting By Lisa Twaronite TOKYO, May 24 (Reuters) ...

Robust private consumption helped Germany eke out meager growth in the first quarter, compensating for declines in both exports and investment, and is likely to remain a pillar of support for Europe's ...

SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - Daily net trading in shares on South Korea's main stock exchange by three major categories of investors as of 0720 GMT, in billions of South Korean won (a negative figure indicates ...

* Markets positioned for slightly better German Ifo * Contrasting euro zone/U.S. outlooks to keep Bunds volatile * German debt seen increasingly sensitive to data By Marius Zaharia LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) ...

* Nikkei may stay volatile for a while - traders * Nikkei support seen at 13,800 short-term, 13,000 mid-term - analysts * Futures-led trade swings market - traders By Ayai Tomisawa TOKYO, May 24 (Reuters) ...

(Refiles to fix typo in third paragraph) LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 gained on Friday, with central bankers offering some reassurance that stimulus will stay for a while yet, and some ...

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - European shares edged up on Friday, staging a small technical bounce after their biggest one-day fall in nearly a year. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.3 percent ...

MOSCOW, May 24 (Reuters) - Russian meat producer Cherkizovo said on Friday it had a net loss in the first quarter as high grain prices and low pork prices weighed on its results. The company reported a ...

HONG KONG, May 24 (Reuters) - China shares posted their fourth-straight weekly gain on Friday, despite weakness in property developers amid concerns that the Chinese economy may be slowing. The CSI300 ...

CARDIFF, May 24 (Reuters) - Britain may be as much as three quarters of the way through the process of working off the high debt levels which have weighed on the economy since the financial crisis, a top ...

* KOSPI edges up, but rises limited amid foreign selling * Banks, autos fuel upside momentum * Oil price fall hurts refiners, chemical companies SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - Seoul shares rose 0.2 percent ...

(Adds no tsunami warning) MOSCOW, May 24 (Reuters) - A magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck off Russia's eastern coast on Friday, briefly prompting a tsunami scare but causing no casualties or substantial damage, ...

* First time issuers coming to Italian corporate debt market * 8/25 issues so far this year from newcomers * Bankers see at least 4-5 new issues by the summer * Issues on rise as bank lending dries up, ...

* U.S.-China deal reached after years of negotiations * Deal will pave way for auditor enforcement actions * U.S. had been blocked from probing Chinese audit failures By Dena Aubin NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters) ...

* CEO Stepic offers resignation after property deals probed * Bank says offer made for personal reasons * Stepic due to hold news conference at 0800 GMT (Adds details on news conference, background) VIENNA, ...

(Adds details, comments) SYDNEY, May 24 (Reuters) - Australian shares reversed early gains to fall 1.6 percent as faltering banks and market volatility hit investor sentiment on Friday, sending the benchmark ...

Asahi Kasei Mortgage Corporation For the full text of this story please click the following link: here

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - 3i Group PLC is taking over the European infrastructure fund management business run by Barclays as part of a plan to boost fee income from public-private partnerships and energy ...

OSLO, May 24 (Reuters) - Aker ASA : * Says successful placement of NOK 2 billion bond issues * Says five year bond was closed at NOK 1.3 billion and the seven year bond was closed at NOK 700 million * ...

MOSCOW, May 24 (Reuters) - Russia's leading online social network, VKontakte, was blacklisted in error and a ban on distributing content inside the country imposed earlier on Friday has already been lifted, ...

MOSCOW, May 24 (Reuters) - Russian emergency authorities lifted a tsunami warning on Friday several minutes after they announced one, following an earthquake in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia's eastern ...

STOCKHOLM, May 24 (Reuters) - Ratos : * Ratos acquires hent * Says Ratos has signed an agreement to acquire approximately 73% of the shares in the norwegian construction company hent * Says the enterprise ...

TOKYO, May 24 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp said it is seeking shareholder approval of a capital reorganisation - a change in accounting that would clear accumulated losses of 924.6 billion yen ($9.1 ...

TOKYO, May 24 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) are among those expected to bid for Panasonic Corp's healthcare business, financial sources with knowledge ...

(Updates to close) SYDNEY, May 24 (Reuters) - Australian shares reversed early gains to lose 1.6 percent as faltering banks and market volatility hit investor sentiment on Friday, sending the benchmark ...

* Top online social network put on black list * Network has been used to organise anti-Putin rallies MOSCOW, May 24 (Reuters) - Russia's top online social network was banned on Friday from distributing ...

May 24 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. * In a potential major setback for Apple Inc, ...

* Nikkei's volatility spooks yen bears * Yen near 2-week high vs dollar, 7-week high against Aussie * Setback in Nikkei, dlr/yen seen as temporary correction * Dollar aided by expectations Fed is leaning ...

FRANKFURT, May 24 (Reuters) - Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International said its Chief Executive Herbert Stepic had offered to resign for personal reasons. The bank said on Friday the responsible committees ...

TOKYO, May 24 (Reuters) - The Nikkei share average rose on Friday in turbulent trade, stablising somewhat after a 7.3 percent dive in the previous session, but the extreme volatility and worries the bull-run ...

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - 3i Group PLC : * 3i Group announces offer to acquire BIFM * BIFM has assets under management of approximately £780 million and an investment team based in London and Paris * ...

HELSINKI, May 24 (Reuters) - The following stocks may be affected by newspaper reports and other factors on Friday: NOVO NORDISK The world's biggest insulin producer said late on Thursday that Phase III ...

Berlin, May 24 (Reuters) - Private consumption helped Germany eke out meager economic growth of 0.1 in the first quarter of the year, compensating for declines in exports and investment in Europe's largest ...

DUBLIN, May 24 (Reuters) - Irish drug firm Elan will issue $850 million worth of senior notes at par, the company said on Friday. The debt, with a coupon of 6.25 percent, matures in 2021. The offer will ...

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Computacenter PLC : * Proposed return of value to shareholders * Proposes to make a one-off return of value to shareholders of 48.7P per existing ordinary share * Equivalent ...

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - H & T Group PLC : * H & t group - estimates 10% movement in gold price will impact profit by approximately £2M based on current business * H & t group - results to be impacted ...