KEY FINANCIAL EVENTS LAST WEEK

MONDAY

British Airways profit rose 8.7 per cent in 3rd quarter

UK producer input prices fell in January by an annual 6.2 per cent, helped by the strong pound

Swiss unemployment rose to a record 5.7 per cent in January

TUESDAY

Unilever pretax profit rose 67 per cent in the 4th quarter: it is selling its specialty chemicals business to raise an estimated $6.8bn for development

BP's 4th quarter profit rose 27 per cent to pounds 689m but fell short of expectations as it announced the oil price boom is over

Reuters' 1996 pretax profits rose 17 per cent but the company warned about the damaging effect of the strong pound for 1997

WEDNESDAY

UK unemployment fell 67,800 in January taking the jobless rate to 6.5 per cent

Bank of England quarterly inflation report called for a moderate rise in UK interest rates

French railway SNCF picked Generale des Eaux and BT as its partners to offer fibre optic telecoms services

THURSDAY

US Dow Jones index closed above 7000 for the first time

Royal Dutch Shell announced a 60 per cent rise in 4th-quarter pretax profits and a stock split

Philips Electronics announced an unexpected 4th-quarter loss as it took a charge of $383m to cover losses at Grundig

Pearson announced a pounds 100m charge against last year's profits for "improper accounting" in its US Penguin division

UK underlying inflation in January rose an annual 3.1 per cent

FRIDAY

Williams Holdings agreed to buy Chubb Security for pounds 1.3bn

Lloyds TSB said 1996 pretax profit rose 52 per cent to pounds 2.5bn

Renault shares fell 6 per cent on stagnant sales Copyright: IOS & Bloomberg