Business and City in Brief

OPEC OUTPUT GOES THROUGH THE CEILING

Output by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries exceeded the Opec ceiling by 620,000 barrels a day in May, rising to 24.2 million barrels from 24.1 million in April, the International Energy Agency said.

Ahead of today's Opec meeting in Geneva, Kuwait's oil minister demanded that the emirate be allowed a bigger production quota.

OILSEEDS APPROVAL

France will agree in principle today to a draft oilseeds deal between the European Community and the US, helping to pave the way for an overall Gatt world trade agreement, a government official said.

CRACKDOWN ON JAPAN

The US will demand that Japan halve its current account surplus by 1996 when negotiators meet in Washington on Friday for two days of talks on a new bilateral framework for trade relations, a Commerce Department official said.

O&Y CREDITORS MEET

Creditors of Olympia & York's Canadian and US divisions met to try to resolve who controls the company after threats by John Zuccotti, its chief executive, to abandon his role in the debt restructuring.

AMD SHARES SLASHED

Advanced Micro Devices reiterated its intention to appeal against a court decision forbidding it to clone Intel's 486 chip. AMD shares lost 15 per cent of their value to close at dollars 23.75.

GAS NEGOTIATIONS

British Gas wants to retain its monopoly over domestic and small business customers in return for measures to help to increase competition in industrial gas supply. The move is an attempt to meet demands by the Office of Fair Trading that the company cut its share of the contract gas market from 70 to 40 per cent by 1995.

RACAL IN EUROPE

Racal Electronics plans to expand its UK-wide telecommunications network infrastructure into France, the Netherlands and Belgium, opening up a potential European market worth pounds 3.6bn over the next three years.

LIFE FIRMS LOSE

Japan's top eight life insurance companies said foreign exchange losses on their foreign assets totalled Y103.7bn in fiscal 1992/3 against Y4.1bn the previous year.

COFFEE AGREEMENT

The International Coffee Organisation approved by a postal vote a draft resolution to extend the International Coffee Agreement for another year from October 1993 to September 1994.

TRUST RAISES 23.6m POUNDS

Fleming Claverhouse Investment Trust said it had raised pounds 23.65m with an offer for 23.65 million conversion shares. Applications for the shares will be converted into ordinary shares on 21 June.

WORLD MARKETS

NEW YORK: Fear of higher interest rates eroded share prices in choppy, nervous trading. By the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 13.01 at 3,532.13.

TOKYO: Weakness in the futures market erased early gains and left the Nikkei average 38.05 points lower at 20,844.19.

HONG KONG: Prices closed lower in lacklustre trading, with the Hang Seng index at 7,124.75, down 32.76.

SYDNEY: Consolidating recent gains, the All Ordinaries index eased 2.5 points to 1,738.5.

JOHANNESBURG: As the gold price fell back, shares in that sector ended appreciably lower. The overall index gave up 25 points to 3,933.

PARIS: Futures-led buying pushed shares sharply higher despite the Bank of France's failure to cut interest rates. The CAC-40 index added 28.17 points to 1,887.86.

FRANKFURT: Supported by stronger futures, the DAX index climbed 17.76 points to 1,655.61.

ZURICH: Shares gained more than 1 per cent as the stronger dollar added to positive sentiment.

MILAN: A slump in Ferruzzi group shares, coupled with the municipal election results, sparked a 2.04 per cent fall in the MIB to 1,150.

LONDON: Report, page 31.