Business and City in Brief

Euro Disney plans job cuts

CGT, the French trade union, said Euro Disney might cut 5,000 jobs and close one of its six site hotels following negotiations on salaries and working conditions. Euro Disney employs 12,500 full-time workers and 5,000 seasonal workers.

Company officials said the meeting was part of a 'permanent process of negotiations on the definition of classifications and minimum salaries'.

Fares criticised

British Airways and three other European airlines violated European Community law by introducing unjustified fare increases last summer, the European Commission ruled.

The Commission said the fares charged by BA, Alitalia, Iberia and Luxair on 22 routes between Britain and other European countries were not justified by costs or competitive conditions, but it has allowed the fares to stand.

NPA legal action

The Newspaper Publishers Association is to investigate whether it can take legal action following last week's collapse of the public relations group Corporate Communications and the immediate sale of its two main operating companies, Georgeson and Charles Barker, to their managements.

More jobless

Some 469,000 new claims for US unemployment benefit were made in the week ending 25 July, the Labor Department said. The 69,000 rise on the previous week was largely due to temporary shutdowns at General Motors.

Cola bottling

Leventis Group has signed a deal worth dollars 25m ( pounds 13.3m) to build two Coca-Cola bottling plants in Romania's Transylvania and Moldova regions.

Snack merger

The European Commission has cleared a merger between the snack food operations of PepsiCo and General Mills to create the biggest snack food manufacturer in Europe.

Gold disclosure

The Russian government has passed a resolution agreeing to provide information on its gold extraction, as a condition of its membership of the International Monetary Fund.

More Kuwaiti oil

Kuwait's Oil Minister, Hamud Abdullah el Rakabah, said his country hoped to raise production from 1.2 million to 1.5 million barrels a day by year-end.

Finns raise rates

Finland's central bank raised its discount rate from 14.62 per cent to 16 per cent yesterday in a bid to halt a massive movement of money abroad. Experts said nearly dollars 500m had left the country in the past few days.

World Markets

New York: Profit-taking and concern over employment data hit blue chips, leaving the Dow Jones Average 24.58 points down at 3,340.56 by the close.

Tokyo: Fresh concern about the economy unsettled the market and the Nikkei 225 lost 57.2 points to 15,926.44.

Hong Kong: Share prices rose slightly with banking stocks leading the way in thin trading. The Hang Seng Index closed at 5,865.27, up 24.03 points.

Sydney: Prices fell as hopes for an interest-rate cut faded. The All Ordinaries index dropped 26.8 points to 2,450.6.

Singapore: Heavy falls in several leading stocks took the Straits Times index down by 25.2 points to 1,416.83.

Bombay: Prices fell sharply. The Bombay Stock Exchange index plunged 100.64 points to 2,529.59.

Paris: A morning rally petered out, with the CAC-40 index of leading shares unable to breach 1,800. The index closed 4.14 points off at 1,793.84.

London: Report, page 21.