Business and City in Brief

MAXWELL RULING CONTESTED

Mark Haas, a director of Lehman Brothers International, yesterday sought to discharge a High Court order requiring him to be questioned in connection with missing Maxwell pension money.

Counsel for Mr Haas described as unfair and unnecessary the oral examination order obtained last month by the joint liquidators of Bishopsgate Investment Management in their attempt to trace money missing from Maxwell funds. The case continues today.

PREMIUM FALL

Legal and General blamed the recession for a 34 per cent slump to pounds 228m in its worldwide single premium income for the six months to June. Annual premium income fell 21 per cent to pounds 94m.

FIRST CLOSE

Kalon, the Yorkshire company bidding pounds 105m for the paint, ink and property company Manders, won 6.2 per cent acceptances at its first closing date.

HAYS BUYS

The business services group Hays has bought Citidata Storage, a computer data storage company, for pounds 4.6m in cash.

BIO-PARTNERS

Newly floated Bio-technology is to collaborate with the pharmaceutical giant Glaxo to develop a new oral asthma drug.

POLISH FRUIT

Allied-Lyons is to form a joint venture between its Margetts Foods fruit processing subsidiary and the Polish company Interpegro to buy and process locally grown fruit for export.

COOK CLEARED

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of the travel agent Thomas Cook from Midland Bank by the German airline LTU and Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.

THREE FINED

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is to fine three medium-sized brokers - New Japan Securities, Kankaku Securities, and Dai- Ichi Securities - Y5m ( pounds 21,000) for improperly compensating favoured clients for investment losses in the past two business years.

COURTAULDS SALE

Courtaulds Textiles has sold its South African subsidiary to a management team for pounds 2.4m. Courtaulds retains the Gossard operation in Cape Town.

WORLD MARKETS

NEW YORK: Stocks closed with strong gains in a late burst of buying. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 21.08 points at 3,358.39.

TOKYO: Profit-taking after Monday's gains left the Nikkei average 137.1 down at 17,064.63.

HONG KONG: Quiet trading, with the banking sector still strong, boosted the Hang Seng index 11.34 points to 6,097.19.

SYDNEY: A session described by one broker as 'across-the- board apathy' ended with the All Ordinaries index just 0.1 of a point easier at 1,638.8.

JOHANNESBURG: The overall index shed 15 points to 3,432.

TEL AVIV: Shares rallied in active trade on confirmation of the new government. The blue chip index added 2.25 to 155.15.

FRANKFURT: Awaiting the Bundesbank's interest rate verdict, the DAX lost 2.4 to 1,734.1.

ZURICH: With activity mainly in industrial stocks, the all-share index slipped 2.1 to 1,156.9.

MILAN: A technical rally lifted the MIB 1.27 per cent to 877.

LONDON: Report, page 25.