Business and City in Brief

Pearson forms television division

Pearson, the multi-media group, will form a television division to expand its interests, especially in Europe and Asia.

Television Holdings will include Thames Television and Financial Times Television, in which Pearson has 100 per cent stakes, as well as its 17.5 per cent holding in BSkyB, 15 per cent in UK Gold, 15 per cent in UK Living, 14 per cent in Yorkshire-Tyne Tees and 10 per cent in Astra.

Bank to axe 3,750

BankAmerica Corp, America's second-largest bank, will shed up to 3,750 jobs worldwide - 3.8 per cent of its workforce - by the end of 1994 to cut costs by an estimated dollars 250m.

BAe still hopeful

John Cahill, chairman of British Aerospace, left Taipei after holding what were described by the Taiwan Aerospace Corporation as 'very constructive' talks on the regional jet joint venture.

Pounds 5m Abacus jackpot

Three directors of Abacus, the electrical components distributor that is hoping to come to the stock market next month, will be worth pounds 5m. Brian Murdoch, chief executive, Peter Griffith- Jones, finance director, and Peter Warsany each own 14.1 per cent of Abacus.

BSM in demand

Intermediaries subscribed for 16.5 million shares in BSM, the driving school, 68 per cent more than their allocation. A further 9.9 million were placed with institutions, and 87,540 were allocated to employees. Dealings start on Wednesday.

Print plan scrapped

News International is scrapping plans to buy an Irish print plant, and reviewing options for printing in Ireland.

Pounds 6.7m Wembley sale

Wembley has sold its interest in National Leisure Catering and the business of Yankee Doodle to the management of NLC for about pounds 6.7m cash.

130 lose power game

South Western Electricity's SWEB retail unit will reduce its servicing operations, with the loss of 130 jobs.

Nissan to pay on merit

Nissan of Japan will pay white- collar workers on individual merit, breaking with the traditional Japanese system based on age and years of service.

China watchdog bites

China's securities watchdog fined the country's first corporate raider, Bao An Enterprises, after ruling the firm broke the rules in its aborted takeover of Shanghai Yanzhong Industrial.

World Markets

New York: A slump in bond prices largely reversed steep early gains in blue chips, leaving the Dow Jones Industrial Average 13.14 ahead at 3,649.30.

Tokyo: The yen's fall against the dollar brought improved trade and an 85.41-point gain by the Nikkei average to 20,164.03.

Hong Kong: Profit-takers pulled the Hang Seng index down 163.36 (1.8 per cent) to 8,719.32.

Sydney: The All Ordinaries edged up one point to 2,061.4.

Bombay: Short-covering by speculators helped the index to add 27.79 points to 2,717.56.

Johannesburg: As gold stocks tracked the falling bullion price, industrials drifted. The overall index lost 33 points to 3,872.

Paris: The cut in leading French interest rates sent the CAC-40 index to a record 2,231.86 with an advance of 32.14 - nearly 1.5 per cent - in very heavy trade.

Frankfurt: The DAX index hit a record closing high of 2,066.17 after gaining 31.48 points in the wake of the interest rate cuts.

Vienna: Rate cuts also had a beneficial effect on the Austrian market, with the ATX index adding 3.57 points to 1,074.58

London: Report, page 24.