The 10 biggest business stories on Tuesday December 29

Asian stock rise; Deutsche Bank to sell Hua Xia stake for up to $4 billion

Deutsche Bank to sell Hua Xia stake for up to $4 billion (Getty)

1. Asian stocks rose on Tuesday, shrugging off early losses as Chinese picked up a day after marking their biggest loss in a month and crude prices took back some lost ground.

2. Crude oil prices remained under pressure on Tuesday as fears of slowing demand added to worries over near-record global production levels that have slashed prices by two-thirds since the middle of last year.

3. UK factories are set to shed thousands jobs next year as the manufacturing sector faces pressure in the global economy according to manufacturers’ organisation EEF.

4. Evergrande Real Estate will buy projects in China worth 20.4 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) from Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu-Tung’s family-controlled companies, extending an acquisition spree by the Chinese developer this year, Bloomberg reports.

5. China published new draft rules for online financing firms in a bid to better protect investors after an inquiry earlier this month into suspected illegal activities by the country's biggest peer-to-peer firm unnerved the investment community.

6. Deutsche Bank is to sell its 20 per cent stake in the Chinese lender Hua Xia as co-Chief executive John Cryan plans to strengthen the firm's balance sheet.

7. E-commerce startup Wish is spending $100 million (£67.1 million) on Facebook advertising per year according to a new report.

8. A strike of Belgian rail workers on January 6 and 7 will disrupt international high-speed trains between Belgium, Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands, rail operators said.

9. Swiss chocolate company Barry Callebaut – the world’s largest maker of chocolate and cocoa products by volume – has started selling “heat-resistant” chocolate.

10. The personal information of 191 million US voters has been exposed online. An independent computer security researcher uncovered a database of information that is exposed on the open Internet due to an incorrectly configured database, he said on Monday.