BUSINESS BRIEFING

m ECONOMICS

DThe FTSE 100 share index dropped 64.5 points to 4,827.1 and smaller companies were worse hit as shares fell across tfce globe in response to Friday's fall on Wall Street. However, New York's fast-fluctuating Dow Jones industrial average was little changed in Monday morning trading and the Nasdaq index showed a slight early recovery. DThe Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that 37 per cent more of its members had witnessed a fall in house prices in March than had seen a rise, up from 34 per cent in February. The number of completed sales per surveyor was unchanged at 21. □ Attempts to make UK regions more entrepreneurial have failed, undermining Britain's competitiveness, claims a report by Dr Robert Huggins of Sheffield University's Management School. DThe European Commission reported that the eurozone economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2005, from 0.2 per cent in the previous quarter. Seasonal factors caused consumer prices to rise by 0.7 per cent, the largest onemonth increase since the data s^.ies began. Annual inflation was at 2.1 per cent, unchanged from a provisional estimate.

BANKING & FINANCE T 1.4%

□ Royal & SunAlliance, the insurer, said that £350 million would be wiped from its net assets after the implementation of new International Financial Reporting Standards, which forced it to include its pension fund deficit on its balance sheet. □ Collins Stewart Tullett, the broker, has settled a legal dispute in Hong Kong with leap, its rival, over alleged staff poaching. □ National Australia Bank, the country's largest bank by assets, said that it would restart a foreign exchange options trading desk that had been shut for more than a year because of a currency trading scandal. This had cost the bank A$252 million (£103 million) and led to charges against four sacked traders. CTHeadhunters are preparing an assault on Morgan Stanley after rival investment banks provided them with lists of suitable staff for recruitment. □ The chances of ABN Amro, the Dutch banking group, winning control of Italy's Banca Antonveneta seemed to have diminished after the Benetton fashion family sold its stake in the bank to rival Banca Popolare di Lodi. The latter has been building a stake in its peer to stop ABN's €6.3 billion (£4.3 billion) approach. □ Michael Spencer, the City tycoon whose personal inter-