Outlook Mr Corcoran may just be out of the stalls, but Paul Walsh has reached the finishing line. He has stepped down as boss of Diageo, with the company's shares having more than tripled on his watch.

EasyJet flew 2.5 per cent more passengers in April, taking the total to 5.3 million, despite the early Easter meaning that most holiday trips took place in the previous month.

Average chief executive is still a fiftysomething man as women struggle to get on boards

The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum has the aerospace giant BAE and insurance group Aviva in its sights as it battles for "reasonable" pay at top businesses.

The City is full of analysts and number crunchers paid vast sums to predict how companies will perform. But yesterday the entire market was caught out on just how much a fund manager achieved. Aberdeen Asset Management took the City by surprise with a 37 per cent increase in profits and 36 per cent rise in dividend and its shares hit the top of the table, up by more than 8 per cent – or 33.4p – to 450.5p.

Lord Wolfson, chief executive of Next, pocketed more than £4.5m last year after a healthy rise in annual profits at the fashion and homewares retailer.

Pressure is mounting on Prudential to review its executive pay awards following an embarrassing reprimand from the Financial Services Authority last week.

Fears over the health of the US economy and worries over a possible bird flu pandemic sent investors crashing down to earth today as global stock markets plunged.

Sports Direct International is famous for flogging large amounts of tracksuits and trainers, but yesterday its bosses were making a name for themselves with the sale of large chunks of shares. David Forsey, chief executive, and the finance chief, Robert Mellors, have sold all their shares ahead of next month's reward scheme which will see them receive 1 million new shares in the new financial year.

ENRC's founding trio of major shareholders are collectively about $100m (£66m) out of pocket after a $1.5bn charge plunged the Kazakh-focused miner into the red last year.

Countrywide got off to a lively start on the London Stock Exchange yesterday as shares in Britain's biggest estate agent raced up 13 per cent to 397p, valuing the business at £848m. The shares had already been priced at the top of the range at 350p and experts said the high first-day premium bodes well for the £1.3bn flotation of Esure at the end of this week. The insurer is expected to be priced at the top of a 275p to 310p range today in time for trading to start tomorrow.

Manufacturing companies in the FTSE 100 have more women on their boards compared with the overall index but employ fewer women professionals than in most other industries.

Investors are turning to classic cars as they don't attract capital gains tax. With CGT charged at 28 per cent for higher-rate taxpayers, and 18 per cent otherwise, savings can be huge.