Business and City in Brief

412bn POUNDS LSE TRADE IN OVERSEAS SHARES

Overseas equity turnover on the London Stock Exchange for the first nine months of the year totalled pounds 412.9bn, 25 per cent more than for the whole of 1992.

Turnover in September exceeded pounds 50bn for the third successive month, the exchange's September Fact Sheet said. Japan was the most active country sector, with turnover rising to 20.9 per cent, up from 17.9 per cent in August. France followed with 19.7 per cent, then Germany with 11.7 per cent. Domestic equity turnover of pounds 49.8bn was marginally down on August's pounds 50.9bn.

GERMAN ORDERS FALL

Industrial orders in western Germany fell a price and seasonally adjusted 2 per cent in August from July and were down 3.7 per cent from a year earlier in unadjusted terms, the Economics Ministry said. Domestic orders were down 2.5 per cent and foreign orders declined 1.5 per cent from July. Separately, it was announced that crude steel production in the first nine months fell 9 per cent from a year earlier to 23.98 million tonnes.

BANKS TO AXE 2,000

Credit Suisse and Swiss Volksbank will cut about 2,000 jobs by the end of 1995. The banks plan to restructure their joint distribution network in Switzerland, giving them 332 outlets. Credit Suisse will shut 35 branches, Volksbank 27.

MEEKER QUITS MGM

Charles Meeker, president of MGM, the film studio of which Credit Lyonnais won control following a long court battle in 1991, resigned last night. An MGM spokesman said there were no plans to replace Mr Meeker.

MERCURY A WINNER

Mercury Communications, a division of Cable and Wireless, has been awarded a five-year contract, worth about pounds 13.5m a year, to provide the Government's long-distance telecommunications network.

EUROCOPTER ORDER

The Dutch defence ministry plans a dollars 228m order for 17 Cougar helicopters from Eurocopter, a joint venture of Daimler-Benz's Dasa subsdiary and the French state-owned Aerospatiale.

JAPANESE PAY CUT

Salaried workers in Japan received a 1.9 per cent increase in 1992, the smallest since 1958. The National Tax Agency said the average Japanese working for a private company was paid dollars 43,100, with men earning 2.07 times the salary of women.

SIMON APPOINTMENT

Simon Engineering, which in September announced a pounds 52.6m first-half pre-tax loss and was talking to its bankers after breaching a covenant, has appointed Tim Redburn as finance director.

OPEC PRODUCES MORE

(First Edition)

The International Energy Agency estimates Opec September crude oil production at 24.71 million barrels a day after 24.56 million in August.

WORLD MARKETS

NEW YORK: Technology shares helped the market higher, and by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 11.73 points at 3,598.99.

TOKYO: Leading shares posted handsome gains as sentiment improved. The Nikkei average advanced 178.32 to 20,500.25.

HONG KONG: With the influx of overseas cash unabated, the Hang Seng index leapt 172.09 points to its fourth consecutive record close, 8,041.57.

SYDNEY: A six-year high for the All Ordinaries index - 2,018.8, up 20.3 - followed increased activity by offshore investors.

BOMBAY: In the absence of institutional buying support, the index fell 15.99 points to 2,625.89.

JOHANNESBURG: With the gold sector gaining 3 per cent and industrials also strong, the overall index rose 41 points to 3,755.

PARIS: Bargain-hunting after an early fall left the CAC-40 index 5.69 points better at 2,164.46.

FRANKFURT: A light wave of profit-taking trimmed gains, leaving the DAX up 14.32 at 1,987.05.

ZURICH: The SPI closed at an all- time high of 1,594.41 after gaining 9.52 points in active trade.

LONDON: Report, page 30.