Business and City in Brief

Lasmo leaves US exploration

Lasmo, the oil and gas independent, sold its main remaining US exploration interests for about dollars 100m ( pounds 50m).

The deal covers the sale of its stake in Ultramar Oil & Gas, a Houston-based business it inherited with the pounds 1bn takeover of Ultramar last December, to Cory Resources.

Oil confusion

Gas oil markets were confused yesterday by reports that Rosnefteprodukt, a Russian export company, had suspended oil product shipments to Western Europe and Japan. September gas oil futures on London's International Petroleum Exchange jumped dollars 3.75 on the news to dollars 186.25 a tonne, up dollars 4 on the day.

Barclays sells

Barclays is to sell its Allied Trust Bank subsidiary to Investec, the South African banking group, for pounds 25m. Allied Trust is a UK-based deposit-taking bank that had a balance sheet of pounds 200m at the end of June.

ASH buys

Automated Security Holdings has paid dollars 42m ( pounds 21m) to acquire Sonitrol, the US alarm checking concern.

Irish inquiry

Goodman International, the Irish meat group, has admitted making undeclared payments of Ir pounds 5.5m ( pounds 5.3m) to staff and management between 1987 and 1990, the Irish beef industry tribunal, resuming its hearings yesterday in Dublin, was told.

Dixons deal

Dixons, the retailing group, is to lift its stake in its Belgian commercial property subsidiary Codic SA to 100 per cent under a deal signed in 1985 when it bought 90 per cent. Dixons will acquire the minority interest from Jacques Lemal, Codic's founder and managing director, who is to retire in September. No details were disclosed.

Flying fax

BT said it had developed a way of sending fax transmissions from aircraft and was planning a full commercial service worldwide later this year. The charge will be pounds 3.35 a minute for voice or fax transmissions to any destination in the world.

World Markets

New York: In thin but choppy trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell steadily and by the close had been lowered 23.50 to 3,258.43.

Tokyo: Profit-taking again put paid to an early rally, pushing the Nikkei average down 157.76 points to 18,282.42.

Hong Kong: With turnover at a 1992 low, the Hang Seng index rose 36.18 points to 5,700.59.

Sydney: The All Ordinaries index fell 13.1 points to a 15- month closing low of 1,501.8.

Johannesburg: Shares fell across the board after the Ciskei massacre, with the overall index losing 46 points to 3,131.

Paris: A poll showing a weakening of support for the Maastricht treaty drove the CAC-40 index down 15.63 to 1,763.67.

Frankfurt: The motor sector and insurer Allianz outperformed the rest of the market as the DAX index edged up 3.92 points to 1,544.55.

Milan: A technical rebound from Monday's 1992 low lifted the MIB 1.27 per cent to 716.

London: Report, page 23.