With yesterday a horror show for stocks across the Square Mile, Bumi was one of the worst hit amid renewed fears over the debts of the Bakrie family. The Indonesia miner, which was co-founded by financier Nat Rothschild, slumped 46.1p to 497.4p following reports claiming the family needs to resolve a covenant breach on a loan worth $437m (£271.1m) by the end of the week.

Britons' growing love for online shopping helped demand for parcel deliveries at UK Mail, the private post deliverer, leap 10 per cent in the first three months of this year.

Ofgem has opened an investigation into energy supplier E.ON to establish whether it is complying with selling obligations, the regulator has announced.

EDF Energy will hand out average £40 rebates to struggling pensioners this winter. The move – which will help 150,000 older people – follows The Independent Fair Energy campaign and will cost the French-owned firm £6m.

HSBC’s global profits have risen to £13.8 billion, a 15 per cent annual rise and one of the healthiest profits ever reported by a British company.

The unending quest for populist, eye-catching initiatives with which Ed Miliband might be personally associated steers us into the realm of tax avoidance. Sadly this proposal would do nothing to rebuild fraternal bridges, but Little Ed is advised to announce that, as PM, he would fulfil an old Labour pledge to close a gaping loophole.

Up to 3,000 Malaysians staged a protest against a rare-earth refinery yesterday over fears of radioactive contamination.

Sir Victor Blank ("Business must start a giving revolution", 24 February) raises a timely issue but does not go far enough.

Job tsar's appointment raises fresh questions over David Cameron's choice of key advisers

Measure would allow greater flexibility over tax thresholds and steal Lib Dems' thunder

Comment

Outlook Albert Edwards at SocGen is an engaging character. Sometimes described as an uber-bear, he pokes fun at any outbreak of hope. Concessions to optimism are for fools. Hell in a handcart is the future. If you're lucky.