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Singapore / DPA The surging gold price has lifted gold mining stocks in Singapore. The precious metal has jumped almost 20 per cent in price since the end of last year to trade above US$1,250 per ounce in recent weeks. Of the three gold miners listed on the Singapore Exchange, two have bucked the bearish tide across the wider market ...

Paris / AFP The European Central Bank’s plan to buy corporate bonds to help the eurozone economy is boosting the private-sector debt market which promptly responded with a new record-sized company bond. With interest rates near or below zero and few other monetary policy tools left in its arsenal, the ECB announced earlier this month that it would begin buying ...

Bloomberg Iain Duncan Smith, who resigned as U.K. work & pensions secretary last week, denied accusations that his move was aimed at undermining Prime Minister David Cameron amid Conservative Party divisions over the European Union. Duncan Smith told BBC Television’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday he quit solely because the government’s tax and welfare changes are unfair. “This is not ...

Bloomberg Telecom Italia SpA Chief Executive Officer Marco Patuano will resign after clashing with Vivendi SA, the company’s biggest investor, two officials at the carrier said, ending a 2 1/2-year tenure leading Italy’s former phone monopoly. Chairman Giuseppe Recchi will assume Patuano’s duties until a replacement is appointed, the officials said. They asked not to be named because Patuano, 51, ...

Bloomberg Czech policy makers will probably use negative interest rates only if they need another instrument to deter “excessive” capital inflows, according to Jiri Rusnok, the top candidate to become the next central bank governor. “We can’t give up that tool, but at the same time I think the probability of it being used is really low,” Rusnok, who joined ...

Madrid / AFP This year was supposed to be a good one for Spanish builders but the lack of a government three months after an inconclusive general election has put the brakes on economic activity. “Everything that has to do with construction in this country is blocked,” said Carlos Luaces, director general of Spain’s association of sand and gravel producers, ...

Washington / AFP In lowering its likely path of future interest rate increases this week, the Federal Reserve pushed down the dollar, perhaps aiming to ease strains caused by clashing monetary policies. Economists and investors alike were surprised when the US central bank announced on Wednesday that it only sees two rate hikes in 2016, half the number it envisioned ...

Bloomberg Six weeks ago, TransCanada Corp.closed a deal to buy a power plant in Pennsylvania. On Friday, the company put it back up for sale. The 704-megawatt Ironwood natural gas-fired power complex that TransCanada bought for $657 million from Talen Energy Corp. is back on the block as the company looks for ways to finance another acquisition worth 15 times ...

Bloomberg Mexico kept its overnight interest rate unchanged after the peso’s rebound from a record low eased inflation pressures and the Federal Reserve left borrowing costs on hold. Banco de Mexico’s Governor Agustin Carstens, held the overnight rate at 3.75 percent. The central bank said it will pay special attention to the exchange rate and its possible pass-through to consumer ...

Rio De Janeiro / AFP The Federation of Sao Paulo Industries is lit up in the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag, a giant black banner cutting across its facade with a blunt message: “Resign now.” The powerful industry group is not the only major player in the Brazilian economy that is openly hostile to embattled President Dilma Rousseff. ...