Bloomberg UK lenders approved more mortgages in 2020 than in any year since before the financial crisis, as house hunters sought to take advantage of a temporary tax cut. The stamp duty holiday, which allows buyers to save as much as 15,000 pounds propelled the housing market into high gear even as the coronavirus crisis sent the wider economy into …

Bloomberg Global stocks and US futures climbed as concern over volatile retail trading receded and China took steps to ease a cash crunch. Silver crossed $30 an ounce for the first time since 2013 in a Reddit-fuelled frenzy. Europe’s Stoxx 600 Index rallied 1%, led by silver mining companies. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1.7%, the biggest gain in …

Bloomberg South African stocks have made their best start to the year since 2012, even after last-week’s pullback, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America are among those predicting further gains. A global appetite for riskier assets has propelled emerging market inflows and the Johannesburg exchange is set to benefit from its heavy weighting in mining stocks as …

Bloomberg Chemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) expects sales and earnings to increase this year after it beat analysts’ estimates by making a profit in 2020. The Riyadh-based firm, controlled by Saudi Aramco, said it sees the global rollout of coronavirus vaccines leading to a 2% to 5% gain in revenue this year. Pretax income will be “moderately higher” …

Bloomberg Chevron Corp slumped after posting a surprise loss and failing to increase its dividend, signaling that the aftermath of 2020’s pandemic-driven petroleum demand crash will linger for the world’s biggest oil companies for some time to come. The California oil titan lost a penny per share during the fourth quarter, compared with the Bloomberg Consensus for a 7-cent profit …

Bloomberg Europe needs to double the share of electricity produced from renewable sources by the end of the decade to be in with a chance of meeting a stricter emissions-reduction target that would put the region’s economy on track to climate-neutrality, according to a report. Europe wants to become the world’s first continent to zero-out greenhouse gases by the middle …

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc agreed to buy a 51% stake in an Irish project to develop a floating wind farm in the Celtic Sea. Simply Blue Energy’s Kinsale venture will develop the Emerald floating wind farm, with 300 megawatts of capacity initially and the potential to scale up to 1 gigawatts. The companies didn’t disclose the value of the …

Bloomberg Here’s more evidence the clean-tech boom is only getting bigger. Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), the clean-tech venture capital fund led by Bill Gates, has raised $1 billion for a second round of investments after backing 45 startups with its first billion. Created in 2016, BEV began funding startups just as the second wave of clean-tech investments was gaining momentum. …

Bloomberg Total SE has had the fastest start in the race between oil supermajors to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. Europe’s three largest oil and gas companies — Total, BP and Royal Dutch Shell — all announced plans last year to eliminate most greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and the fuels they sell in the coming decades. It marked a …

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc sought to shoot down Germany’s multibillion euro bailout for Deutsche Lufthansa AG, asking a European Union court to cancel EU approval. Germany’s 6 billion-euro ($7.3 billion) recapitalisation and a state guarantee for a 3 billion-euro loan “discriminates unlawfully between EU airlines,” Ryanair said in an emailed statement. The carrier filed its challenge at the EU’s General …