January-March operating profit was 211.8 billion yen ($2.0 billion) - TOKYO, May 13 - Nissan Motor Co reported a 14 percent drop in fourth-quarter operating profit and joined rivals in forecasting a sharp fall in earnings this year, dragged down by a weak dollar, high commodity prices and soft U.S. demand. More »
The Central Bank runs a managed float of the rouble using a dual currency basket of 0.55 dollars and 0.45 euros. Dealers said they expected the market turnover to be $3.0-3.5 billion on Tuesday, a few billion dollars less than usual volumes. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Andrei Ostroukh; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) - MOSCOW, May 13 - The Russian rouble weakened against the dollar/euro basket on Tuesday and some dealers attributed the move to doubts about any early central bank move to allow rouble appreciation to combat inflation. More »
"This transaction is a new one for us," Pavel Gorbatsevich, the bank's executive vice-president, told reporters. "We intended to establish new business contacts (in the Middle East) - DUBAI, May 13 - Bank of Moscow , which plans to raise as much as $2 billion dollars this year, said on Tuesday it may tap liquidity in the Gulf Arab region after signing its first loan deal in the Middle East. More »
Shares of Hitachi, which has its roots in 1910 as a repair factory for mining equipment, lost 35 percent last business year, while those of closest rival Toshiba Corp fell 15 percent and the electric machinery subindex fell 28 percent. (Additional reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Michael Watson) - TOKYO, May 13 - Japan's Hitachi Ltd tumbled to a quarterly loss on slow TV sales and a tax writedown but said on Tuesday it would rebound to a profit this year on a recovery in hard drives, pushing its shares up 6 percent. More »
MUMBAI, May 13 - Piramal Life Sciences Ltd, a Piramal group company, said on Tuesday it has begun initial, or phase I, clinical studies in Europe for an experimental drug being developed to treat Type II diabetes. More »
KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 - Malaysian car-maker Proton Holdings Bhd has signed a memorandum of understanding to provide engineering services and supply parts to Dutch luxury sports car-maker Spyker Cars NV , Proton said on Tuesday. More »
MOSCOW, May 13 - Dmitry Razumov, chief executive of Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group, has joined the board of the world's top aluminium producer, United Company RUSAL, UC RUSAL said on Tuesday. More »
LONDON, May 13 - European shares extended losses on Tuesday as banks were weighed down by a writedown-related rights issue at Credit Agricole , high UK inflation and further signs of weakness in UK housing markets. More »
Shares in Fortis eased after it reported first quarter net profit, including for the first time the ABN AMRO operations that Fortis bought last year, fell to 808 million euros ($1.25 billion) - AMSTERDAM, May 13 - Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis reported on Tuesday a worse than expected 31 percent fall in net profit, hurt by writedowns that gains from its ABN buy failed to fully offset. More »
PARIS, May 13 - Total said on Tuesday it had acquired interests in three offshore licences in Australia's North West Shelf. More »

Oil prices ease in Asian trade



