IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Dubai deal

NASDAQ Stock Market Inc and Borse Dubai, competing to buy Nordic exchange operator OMX AB, agreed to give NASDAQ control of OMX, while Dubai gets a stake in both bourses and a holding in the London Stock Exchange Plc. Dubai will in return get a 19.99 percent stake in NASDAQ, restricted to 5 percent voting rights, as well as a 28 percent holding in the London Stock Exchange now owned by NASDAQ.

Govt guarantee

The UK Treasury will guarantee payments of deposits set up before yesterday at Northern Rock Plc, the UK bank bailed out by the Bank of England.

The guarantee won't cover new accounts set up after midnight on Wednesday, the Treasury said yesterday in a Regulatory News Service statement. The guarantee will also cover customers who re-open accounts closed from last Thursday though Wednesday, it said.

Chip firms fall

Elpida Memory Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Advantest Corp fell after orders for chip-making equipment to Japan-based companies declined in August.

Elpida, Japan's largest maker of computer memory chips, dropped 5.9 percent to close at 3,810 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Advantest, the world's biggest supplier of memory-chip testers, tumbled 4.7 percent to its lowest level in almost three years. Tokyo Electron, the world's second-largest chip-equipment maker, dropped by 4.9 percent to its lowest in more than a year.

Small gain likely

US retailers may post the smallest holiday sales gain in five years as consumers cope with tighter credit and a housing slump, the National Retail Federation said.

Spending will rise 4 percent to $474.5 billion during November and December, the Washington-based trade group said yesterday in a statement. Sales gained 4.6 percent in the year-earlier period.

Asia boosts Pernod

Pernod Ricard SA, the world's second- largest liquor company, said full-year profit exceeded analysts' estimates on strengthened Asian demand for higher-priced spirits and lower distribution costs for former Allied Domecq brands.

Net income climbed 30 percent to 831 million euros in the year through June from 639 million euros in the prior period, the Paris-based company said yesterday in a statement.

Stocks sold

Citigroup Inc sold 62.91 million euros of shares in Red Electrica de Espana SA, the operator of Spain's electricity network.

The US brokerage offered 1.8 million shares for 34.95 euros apiece, Citigroup wrote in an e-mail to clients, without identifying who commissioned the sale. Ian Villiers, a spokesman for Citigroup in London, declined to comment.

Wheat bounces back

Wheat futures rose for the first day in three as investors bet recent losses were overdone. Soybean and corn futures also climbed.

Wheat for December delivery rose as much as 10.5 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $8.555 a bushel and was at $8.515 in after-hours electronic trade on the Chicago Board of Trade as of 12:09 pm Singapore time.

Lufthansa 'interested'

Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's second-largest airline, is interested in buying unprofitable carrier Alitalia SpA, Il Sole/24 Ore reported without saying where it got the information.

The German airline has received "approaches from Rome" about making an offer for Alitalia, Sole said.

Alitalia Chairman Maurizio Prato will identify potential buyers of the government's stake in the airline by the end of the month, the head of Lombardy's regional government said.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 09/21/2007 page16)