Business and City in Brief

Scotland loses 345 jobs and wins 180

More than 300 jobs will be moved from Scotland to France and Italy under cost-cutting plans announced by CPC (United Kingdom). As many as 345 of 449 jobs will be lost at the group's plant in Paisley, Strathclyde, which makes Knorr soups and stock cubes, as well as Hellmann's mayonnaise.

In a separate development, Motorola, the US computer company, said it would invest a further pounds 50m at its computer chip plant at East Kilbride, near Glasgow, creating 180 more jobs and taking its workforce to more than 2,000.

US toy giants merge

Two leading US toy manufacturers, Mattel and Fisher-Price, are to merge. Under the deal, which should be completed by December, Fisher-Price shareholders will exchange their holdings for about dollars 500m worth of Mattel shares. In 1992, Mattel - maker of the Barbie doll - had sales of dollars 1.85bn, while Fisher-Price's turnover was dollars 694m.

UK oil surge forecast

More than 80 new North Sea oil and gas fields could be developed over the next 20 years, according to Grampian Regional Council's annual review of the industry. It expects a second peak of production in about two years and predicts there will still be more than 40,000 oil-related jobs in the region in 2006.

Dollars 3.4bn gold jewellery

Gold jewellery retail sales in the first half rose 6 per cent year-on- year in dollar terms, and were up 8.7 per cent in volume terms, the World Gold Council said. Total jewellery sales rose to dollars 3.4bn from dollars 3.3bn, accounting for 75 per cent of total annual demand for bullion.

Daiwa acts over fraud

Daiwa Securities punished 15 officials for involvement in fraud and cut salaries of executives, including the chairman and president, to indicate their acceptance of responsibility. Fourteen of the officials involved in fraud have left the company and one was demoted.

VW agrees 3,000 cuts

Volkswagen's management board and works council agreed on a further 3,000 job cuts aimed at reducing the parent company workforce to 100,000 by 1994, down from more than 120,000 in 1992.

Pounds 25m Racal contract

Racal Electronics' Yeoman team joint venture with Siemens Plessey Systems has been awarded a contract worth an initial pounds 25m a year to work on a new combat net radio system for the British armed services.

Digital shuts plant

Digital Equipment Corporation of the US will close a German manufacturing plant employing 600 in Kaufbeuren to cut costs.

EC steel declines

The European Community produced 10.7 million tonnes of crude steel in July, down 0.6 per cent from a year earlier. Output for the first seven months of 1993 was 78.3 million tonnes, a decline of 4 per cent.

Globe deal approved

The US Justice Department has approved the New York Times's dollars 1.1bn purchase of the Boston Globe.

Philips dial-a-move

(First Edition)

Philips, the electronic giant, launched a prototype television set-top decoder to enable users to dial a catalogue of movies by telephone and view them at home. The group is one of several scrambling to create a box to capture digital visual signals and beam them into homes, liberating consumers from the menus offered by television channel or video hire shops.

World Markets

New York: The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged to another record high, gaining 7.27 to 3,612.13 by the close, despite determined profit-taking after recent strong gains and the worst trade deficit since October 1987.

Tokyo: The Nikkei average gave up 85.71 at 20,687.47 on investor disappointment at an apparent lack of direction in government economic policy.

Hong Kong: Buoyed by good company results, the Hang Seng index surged 44.29 to 7,605.26, a record for the fourth consecutive day.

Sydney: Heavy overseas buying lifted the All Ordinaries index 31.6 to 1,926.3, its highest level since October 1987.

Johannesburg: Golds and industrials were in demand, leaving the overall index 50 better at 4,618.

Frankfurt: Fears of an impending correction restricted the DAX index to a 3.26-point gain at 1,938.98.

Paris: Fading hopes of deep interest rate cuts lowered the CAC-40 index 21.55 to 2,139.20.

Zurich: The SPI index eased 6 to 1,569.38 on lack of demand.

London: Report, page 24.