Business and City in Brief

Euro Disney trading halted

The Paris bourse authorities twice halted trading in Euro Disney shares after a 10 per cent fall followed by a further 5 per cent drop.

The bourse later imposed a floor of Fr7.75 for dealing in the shares. Trading was first suspended on Friday, after a fall sparked by research by a Paribas analyst, Nigel Reed, that suggested the shares were overvalued. The shares closed down 11.6 per cent at Fr8.40.

Satellite buyout

Service Corporation International has sold its Cambridge Industries satellite equipment subsidiary to its management in a deal worth up to pounds 17m, backed by 3i and National Westminster.

Kolbenschmidt sale

Metallgesellschaft said there were 'no real alternatives' to its talks regarding the sale of its 46.6 per cent stake in Kolbenschmidt, the motor components maker, to Dana, the US company, after newspaper reports that it was also talking to the engineering group T&N.

Israel raises bank rate

Israel's central bank raised its basic lending rate to commercial banks by 1.5 percentage points to 14 per cent, a week after a looming tax on share profits sent prices plunging on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

TODAY 30.8.94

Interims: Beckenham, Buckingham, Dixon Motors, Guinness Peat, London Finance & Investment, Macfarlane, RJB Mining, Stewart & Wight, Volvo.

Finals: Cathay, Lombard Insurance, Verity.

TOMORROW 31.8.94

Economic Trends, Monthly Digest of Statistics.

Interims: Astra, Cairn Energy, Ciba-Geigy, Dominick Hunter, Irish Continental, Johnston Press, Provident Financial, John Mowlem, Partco, Psion, Ropner, Rugby, Serco, Spring Ram.

Finals: IAF, Fletcher Challenge, Louis Newmark

THURSDAY 1.9.94

The 'City' table: overseas earnings of UK financial institutions.

Interims: Anglo Pacific Resources, Barr & Wallace Arnold, British-Borneo Petroleum, Cattle's, Eclipse Blinds, Independent Newspapers, Ladbroke, Michael Page, Quarto, Rathbone, Reckitt & Colman, Rolls-Royce, Silvermines, T&N, United Carriers, Vickers, Waterford Wedgwood, Williams.

Final: Courtyard Leisure

FRIDAY 2.9.94

UK offical reserves.

Interims: Fife Indmar, Schroders.

WORLD MARKETS

NEW YORK: Short-covering continued to fuel blue chips. The Dow Jones Average closed up 17.80 at 3,898.85 after penetrating the 3,900 barrier briefly.

JAPAN: Strength in the construction sector nudged the Nikkei 225 index ahead 128.93 points at 20,600.42, despite a weaker yen.

HONG KONG: Closed.

SINGAPORE: The Straits Times Industrial index rose 12.29 points at 2,305.80.

SYDNEY: Share prices recorded their best gains since May as a higher current account deficit appeared to rule out further rate increases. The All Ordinaries index was up 36.4 points to 2,112.8.

JOHANNESBURG: The soggy gold price left the overall index off 22 at 5,837

FRANKFURT: Friday's sharply higher closing on Wall Street boosted the DAX index 31.65 to 2,203.95

ZURICH: The stronger dollar spurred the SMI index to an advance of 53.9 at 2,635.2.

PARIS: The CAC-40 index picked up 12.53 at 2,075.27 in thin trade.

LONDON: Closed.