The 10 biggest business stories on Monday February 1

Nearly a million investors lose $7.6bn in China’s Ponzi scheme; HSBC to freeze salaries and hiring globally in 2016

HSBC is imposing a hiring and pay freeze across the bank (Getty)

1. China’s official performance of manufacturing index (PMI) printed at 49.4, down from 49.7 in December, missing market expectations of a read of 49.6. It was the sixth month in succession that the Index came in below the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction, and marked the steepest decline in activity since August 2012.

2. HSBC, Europe's largest lender, is imposing a hiring and pay freeze across the bank globally in 2016, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

3. British business secretary Sajid Javid has admitted the tax settlement between Google and the UK government “was not a glorious moment”.

4. Britain's BT Group said on Monday it would restructure its businesses to incorporate mobile operator EE, as it reported its best revenue growth for more than seven years in the third quarter.

5. Ryanair has unveiled a 110 per cent increase in profits, in its third quarter, with traffic growing 20 per cent. It added it will buy back €800 million (£609 million) of shares.

6. Rolls-Royce has won a $2.7 billion (£1.9 billion) order from Norwegian for Trent 1000 aircraft engines and so-called "TotalCare" long-term maintenance for 19 new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

7. Chinese police have arrested 21 people in connection with an online finance scam which allegedly defrauded almost a million investors of 50 billion yuan (£5.3 billion, $7.6 billion), according to Quartz. Police allege that the senior management of Ezubao stole that much from 900,000 investors nationwide, which would make it China’s largest-ever case of investor fraud, by both cash value and the number of victims.

8. Finland's Nokia on Monday settled its patent dispute with Korea's Samsung, saying the arbitration verdict will boost its patent sales by hundreds of millions of euros.

9. Barclays and Credit Suisse will pay $154.3 million combined to settle charges that they violated federal securities laws over their so-called “dark pools”, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said Sunday.

10. Investors will now how much Google-parent Alphabet is spending on “moonshots” – self-driving cars, glucose-monitoring contact lenses, and other projects – when the company reports fourth-quarter results after markets close on Monday. The internet giant will report earnings under its new umbrella name for the first time.