The Business Matrix: Saturday 26 October 2013

Unions seek pledge on Qatar

A host of British building companies are under pressure from trade unions not to exploit cheap migrant labour on construction contracts ahead of the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The GMB has called for an urgent meeting with 13 British companies including Mace, Laing O’Rourke and Kier.

Mail still worth a punt, says broker

Royal Mail is worth £5.7bn and its shares are still worth buying even though they are now valued at 61 per cent more than the Government’s float price, the stockbroker Panmure Gordon said yesterday. It rated the postal group’s stock a “buy” despite their value rising by another 26p to 555p yesterday.

Sainsbury’s ahead of Asda by a nose

Sainsbury’s has overtaken Asda to become Britain’s second-biggest supermarket for the first time in a decade, according to research released yesterday by market analyst Nielsen. The latest data gives Sainsbury’s a 16.6 per cent share of the market.

Inflation points to revival in Japan

Efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reflate Japan’s economy gathered pace in September as consumer prices rose for the fourth straight month. The core consumer prices index, which excludes food, was up 0.7 per cent, from 0.8 per cent in August.