Financial Times Summary

Fri 25 Jul 2008

UBS
The nationwide investigation into the collapsed auction-rate securities market intensified on Thursday as Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney general, filed civil charges against UBS, accusing the Swiss bank of selling the investments while falsely marketing them as safe and liquid. In a complaint filed on Thursday, Mr Cuomo claimed that the Swiss bank stepped up efforts to sell securities to its retail customers "so as to reduce its own exposure. The filing said that several senior UBS officials, who are not named, sold more than $21m of their personal holdings of auction-rate securities.

Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse defied fears it would post fresh losses in investment banking in the second quarter, revealing only a small net markdown on its credit assets. The Swiss bank made $1.18bn of net income in the second quarter , a year-on-year fall of 62%. The result followed a lossmaking first quarter when it wrote down SFr5.3bn, partly because of the losses from the trading scandal.

FSA
Financial Services Authority investigators accused Malcolm Calvert, a former partner of Cazenove bank, of a dozen counts of insider share dealing.

HSBC
The US second quarter earnings season might not turn out as gloomy as many fear, says Robert Parkes, equity strategist at HSBC. He cites Thomason Reuters data showing that by the ned of the week 88 companies in the S & P 500 index had reported, with the headline blended growth rate-which combines actual reported figures with estimates for these yet to report-looking grim at minus 17%.
Henderson Global Investors- Negative investor sentiments towards medium and smaller-sized companies is creating opportunities for Henderson Global Investors' £247m Lowland Investment Company. The unit trust focuses on income and growth and, according to manager James Henderson, tougher times for the UK economy, are resulting in low valuations for many quality UK small and mid-size companies- a situation that he hopes to exploit.

Dawnay Day
Fallout from the ongoing disintegration of the Dawnay Day empire sees Peter Klimt, one half of the duo with Guy Naggar, stepping down as director of Dawnay Day Carpathian, a retail property fund in central and Eastern Europe. He and Mr Naggar have also stepped down as directors of Dawnay Shore hotels.

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