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(ShareCast News) - The Treasury is facing fresh opposition over its new bank tax, with both Labour and the Scottish National party (SNP) arguing it will weaken competition in the sector and proposing changes to the Finance Bill to reduce the charge for smaller operators. The opposition parties are concerned that the 8% surcharge on UK profits, announced by chancellor George Osborne in the July budget, will unfairly disadvantage building societies and challenger banks. Shadow chancellor Chris Leslie told the Sunday Times that the new bank surcharge "does not reflect the risks posed by larger financial institutions". Several of these challenger banks may soon be bought by Sabadell, the new Spanish owner of TSB, which has drawn up a list takeover targets as it looks to build a sizeable contender to the big four high street banking giants. Bids for Clydesdale and Royal Bank of Scotland's offshoot Williams & Glyn are being planned, the Sunday Times reported, with City sources suggesting takeover targets could also include heavily lossmaking Co-operative Bank.Standard Chartered, one of the banks Osborne's Finance Bill was designed to please, is facing a new round of fines and possibly even criminal prosecution in the US over alleged breaches of sanctions against Iran, the Sunday Times also reports. The US Department of Justice is investigating whether the bank broke sanctions after 2007, when it said it had ceased trading with Iranian clients, with allegations centred around a supposed team of Farsi speakers employed at its Dubai office between 2009 and 2011.Russia's energy tsar has said the OPEC oil cartel may have to shelve its low oil price policy within months as it cannot face the pain of low crude prices forever. Arkady Dvorkovich, the deputy prime minister, said OPEC producers were suffering from their attempt to flush out rivals by flooding the world with excess output. "I don't think they really want to live with low oil prices for a long time. At some point it is likely that are going to have to change policy. They can last a few months, to a couple of years," he told the Sunday Telegraph. The gut-lurching slide seen on the Chinese stock market in recent weeks is nearing its end as some stability returns, People's Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan assured at a G20 finance ministers meeting on Saturday, adding that the actions of the bank prevented prices from plunging further. He stressed that there was "no notable effect" on the economy in real terms. The Financial Times noted that finance ministers and central bankers in the G20 supported China's argument that changes to its state-managed currency peg last month were a step towards a more market-determined exchange rate.China could build and operate a nuclear reactor at Bradwell in Essex once David Cameron signs a proposed deal in October, in return for helping to fund two other planned nuclear plants to be built by France's EDF Energy at Hinkley Point in Somerset and the other at Sizewell, Suffolk. The Sunday Times said the deals would be part of a wider pact between Britain, France and China to be agreed during the Chinese president Xi Jinping's state visit next month.The impact of this equity and currency turmoil on emerging market-focused hedge funds is not entirely clear, although many institutional investors believe these funds are equally vulnerable to performance issues and redemptions as their traditional fund management rivals. Troy Gayeski, a senior portfolio manager at US fund of hedge funds business SkyBridge, told the Financial Times that several emerging market hedge fund managers suffered substantial losses of between 3% and 35% last month and so he plans to continue to avoid them and "cannot understand why anyone would buy emerging markets now".Supermarket chain Morrisons may get as little as £30m from the sale of its convenience stores, according to report, as talks with investment company Greybull Capital rumbled on. According to the Sunday Telegraph, sources said the grocer expected to rake in between £30m and £50m from the sale, which came after a review by new chief executive David Potts.Bupa is planning to sell its home-care business, with KPMG hired to find buyers as the group ponders selling other unprofitable divisions too, most prominently its care home business. The Sunday Times wrote that Bupa Home Healthcare, which lost £3.6m on £388m revenue last year from caring for those with chronic conditions at home and providing medical services to care homes, was likely to generate a significant windfall for the group.London-listed Nomad Foods is battling McCain Foods to buy meat-free food manufacturer Quorn. Current private equity owner Exponent is preparing to send out its formal information packages to all potential bidders next week, the Sunday Telegraph was told. Other names that are rumoured to be eyeing up the big name brand include NYSE-listed Whitewave, Chinese group Charoen Pokphand Foods and private equity firms PAI, Bridgepoint and Cinven.The owners of Top Right Group are planning the £1bn initial public offering (IPO) of the events and publishing group this autumn unless worries about China prove too disruptive. Majority owner Apax Partners and Guardian Media Group are understood to have brought in Bank of American Merrill Lynch to carry out the flotation, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Top Right owns publisher Emap, i2i and Lions events organisers, and business and political intelligence units DeHavilland, GWGSN and Planet Retail, among others.A smaller flotation is planned for drugs company Faron Pharmaceuticals, a Finnish company led by one of the doctors who treated Alexander Litvinenko. The IPO on London's AIM is set to be announced this week, said the Sunday Times, with the group hoping to raise £10m to fund the third stage of clinical trials of a drug being developed to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).