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Spirit showed there is life in the pub game yet, despite a £595m writedown on the value of its properties.

Signs of life in the great British boozer should emerge this week when the Spirit Pub Company cheers the sector with upbeat profit figures.

The former Bank of America Merrill Lynch corporate broker at the centre of a Financial Services Authority (FSA) "market abuse" crackdown has been offered a return to the City by Russia's Renaissance Capital.

Ian Hannam is by far the Financial Services Authority's biggest scalp in the recent flurry of prosecutions on disclosing inside information.

The broker at the centre of the Greenlight Capital insider trading scandal will not fight his £350,000 fine despite clients and rivals agreeing that he did little wrong.

Looks like there could be life in the pubs game yet.

Ian Dyson, the chief executive of the Spirit Pub Company, yesterday vigorously defended his decision to demerge Punch Taverns in the summer as he annouced he would step down at its annual meeting in December.

Spirit Pub Company credited refurbished pubs and food for driving strong fourth-quarter sales yesterday, in its maiden update since it demerged from Punch Taverns last month.

The August bank holiday means it is a shortened week for the City, with Bwin.party among the companies updating the market as it releases its first interim results on Wednesday since the completion of the merger between PartyGaming and Austria's Bwin in March.

Punch Taverns and Spirit Pub Group will update the market on Thursday, for the first time as separate entities since their split earlier this summer.