A US Senate hearing turned the spotlight on the role of big banks in the trading of key commodities yesterday, with one lawmaker questioning the extent to which lenders engage in the market for physical commodities.

Financial giant is accused of exploiting rules over metal warehousing in order to manipulate commodity prices

A trader who made millions of US dollars by moving the price of commodities, ranging from oil to wheat, has been fined around $3.1 million (£2 million) by authorities in the UK and the US.

Investors have become more bullish about bricks and mortar as the outlook for property has improved across the country.

Worries over the US Federal Reserve easing back on money printing left RAB Capital, the hedge fund hammered by an ill-fated bet on Northern Rock, nursing fresh losses last month.

The country's political upheaval has driven prices high, but fundamentals underpinning black gold are weaker than ever

Marc Rich, founder of the Glencore Xstrata commodities giant who was one of the most famous fugitives from US justice in the 1980s and 1990s until being controversially pardoned by Bill Clinton when he was President, has died of a stroke in Switzerland aged 78.

The chief executive of Polymetal International, the Russian gold producer which exits the FTSE 100 this month, has warned that it could take three years for it to re-enter the blue-chip index.

Glencore Xstrata's chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, has announced three new appointments to the board of the wheat trading-to-coal mining empire, including the veteran Wall Street banker John Mack.

Glencore has confirmed that it is being investigated by Italian financial police over tax evasion allegations involving its Sardinian subsidiary, the metals producer Portovesme.

Sir John Bond was today ejected as chairman of FTSE 100 mining giant Glencore Xstrata, only minutes before he was due to run its first annual meeting following the $67 billion (£44 billion) merger.

High rollers knock 5% off Rank profits

The FTSE 100 index has hit its highest level since December 2007, buoyed by a cut in Australian interest rates, some better-than-expected German factory output data and the afterglow from last week's decent US jobs report.