The 10 biggest business stories on Thursday October 29

Government sells further 1% stake in Lloyds; Women now make up 25% of UK’s top companies; British house price growth accelerated this month

A general view of Egerton Crescent in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, England. Egerton Crescent has been named by Lloyds Bank as Britain's most expensive road to live in, with average property prices around £5M (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

1. Drugmakers Pfizer and Allergan are considering a 300 billion deal in what could be the biggest merger in the healthcare industry, the Wall Street Journal reports

2. Royal Dutch Shell has reported a third-quarter net loss of $7.4 billion after cancelling a series of long-term projects, including drilling in Alaska. Pre-tax loss was $9.123 billion, compared to profit of $8.118 billion last year.

3. FTSE 100 companies have now met a voluntary target of 25 per cent women board members, according to new report. But former trade minister Lord Davies and author of the report says it should now be replaced by a new target of 33 per cent by 2020.

4. The Fed kept interest rates steady. The US central bank cited slower job growth as it kept benchmark rates near zero.

5. China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang said China requires annual growth of at least 6.53 per cent over the next five years, Bloomberg reported, citing unidentified sources.

6. The Treasury has reduced its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by a further 1 per cent to 9.98 per cent.

7. Barclays said on Thursday it made a 290 million pound provision to compensate UK customers following an internal review of rates given on foreign exchange transactions between 2005 and 2012.

8. British house price growth accelerated this month, according to a survey on Thursday. Mortgage lender Nationwide said house prices rose 0.6 per cent in October compared with a 0.5 pe rcent increase in September.

9. Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, said Thursday that litigation costs and write-downs pushed it to a record net loss in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank said in a statement that it booked a net loss of €6.01 billion in the period from July to September compared with a loss of €94 million a year earlier.

10. Nintendo shares dived more than 10 per cent after it pushed back the launch of its videogame service for smartphones to March 2016. The company had previously planned to introduce its first smartphone games by the end of the year.