BP Share News (BP.)

Standard Chartered is poised to launch a rights issue to raise £5bn-£7bn ($7.9bn-$11bn) in an effort to buttress itself from the impact of new global capital rules.The UK-based emerging markets bank could announce the plan as early as this week, according to people close to the cash call.The bank's shares in Hong Kong were suspended from trading pending an announcement relating to a corporate action, according to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Trading was expected to resume later on Wednesday, the FT reports.The huge rights issue, which may come as early as this week, could free the acquisitive UK-based bank to carry out further deals, particularly in emerging markets, as well as signalling to investors that its capital ratios are top drawer, the Times adds.Peter Voser, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, has strongly criticised BP's well design and internal inquiry into the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP's report into how the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank on April 20, killing 11 men, cleared the company of any serious negligence. But Mr Voser said to "correctly investigate" the company ought to have looked more closely at its own well design, the Telegraph reports.The surge in the price of gold over recent months is set to continue, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs, who yesterday forecast that the gold spot price will reach $1,650-an-ounce in a year's time. Analysts at the US investment bank said that the commodity would continue its momentous rise, which has seen the precious metal jump to all-time record levels. On 7 October it reached a record high of $1,364.77-a-troy ounce, and has continued to trade at strong levels. Gold reached $1,350 in trading yesterday, the Independent reports.A million people are expected to lose their jobs in the next four years as a result of the Government's decision to cut public spending by £83bn, according to a report out today. Nearly 500,000 jobs are likely to be cut in the private sector as the Government stops building schools, hospitals and roads and cancels other contracts. The report by the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers outlines the impact on construction, business and other sectors as the spending cuts start to bite, the Times reports. A privatised Royal Mail could be worth just £700m excluding debt when the effects of falling mail volumes, the threat of industrial action and a failure to modernise are taken into account. That is the warning contained in the first independent valuation of the Royal Mail, seen by The Times, into a flotation of the state postal service. Such a low return for the Treasury could scupper the coalition's privatisation, details of which will be published today in Vince Cable's Postal Services Bill.J Sainsbury has pulled into the lead in the sales race between the leading supermarkets as Asda suffered a tenth consecutive month of declining market share. Sainsbury's was the fastest-growing of the big four supermarkets, according to industry data released yesterday, with total sales rising 5.6%. It pushed its market share from 15.7% to 15.9%, the Times reports.The Federal Reserve's leading opponent against more quantitative easing said there's "no strong evidence" it will work, as the minutes from the central bank's last meeting cemented expectations that his colleagues believe more money printing is necessary. homas Hoenig, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas, on Tuesday launched his most strident attack yet against QE, arguing it would not help drive an economic recovery, the Telegraph reports.HM Revenue & Customs more than trebled the pay of a key figure behind its troubled PAYE system to stop him leaving at a crucial time, it emerged yesterday. Deepak Singh was awarded a three-month contract worth £149,500 ? equivalent to £600,000 a year ? to be acting chief information officer in 2007, despite failing to win the job permanently. His previous salary was between £160,000 and £165,000 a year. The details of such a generous pay deal are likely to pile extra pressure on HMRC, which has already come under fire for its handling of the PAYE fiasco, the Times reports.The Government confirmed yesterday that it had received a letter from media organisations protesting at Rupert Murdoch's £8bn bid to take full control of BSkyB. The petition by Guardian Media Group, Telegraph Media Group, Trinity Mirror, Daily Mail and General Trust, the BBC, Channel 4 and BT urged Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, to intervene in the merger between News Corporation and BSkyB, Britain's biggest pay-TV company, the Times reports.The Greek bond market has been the star performer in the eurozone in the past three months as confidence grows that Athens can turn round its economy. A combination of better data than expected, China's pledge to buy the country's bonds and hopes that international bail-out loans will be extended have boosted investor sentiment, the FT reports.