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UK construction output advanced less than expected in September In September, on an annual basis, construction output registered a rise of 3.50% in the UK, lower than market expectations for an advance of 4.30%. In the prior month, construction output had registered a revised rise of 0.80%. UK Rightmove house price index declined in November The Rightmove house price index recorded a drop of 1.70% in the UK on a MoM basis, in November. The Rightmove house price index had climbed 2.60% in the preceding month.

Oil giant Shell failed to act on its own internal advice to replace a 30-year-old pipeline years before it wreaked havoc on the Niger Delta.

Battersea’s Covent Garden Market to get ‘facelift’ in £2 billion regeneration plan: The Nine Elms area in Battersea, south-west London, has been given a double boost, with the wholesale market granted planning permission for a significant facelift, including the construction of 3,000 homes, and the transport secretary approving a £1 billion connecting Underground line.

Brent oil crashes below $80 to four-year low: Brent oil has crashed this morning to its lowest level in four years after the U.S. Energy Department lowered its price forecasts amid a glut of supply and weakening global demand.

The banking industry’s bill for bad behaviour: $300 billion: More penalties for foreign exchange manipulation, Libor-rigging and mis-selling could take the total fines levied on the banking industry above $300 billion (£190 billion), analysts have predicted.

‘Shell was told to replace pipeline six years before Nigeria oil spills’: Shell failed to act on its own internal advice to replace a 30-year-old pipeline years before it wreaked havoc on the Niger Delta by rupturing and spilling thousands of barrels of oil into the area, according to court documents.

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Toscafund, an investment manager that has a large stake in rival bank Aldermore , is among a group of blue-chip backers that bought shares in Virgin Money ahead of its initial public offering in London on Thursday, Sky News reported. Others include Fidelity Investments , Henderson, Kames Capital, M&G Investments and Standard Life Investments, Sky said, citing institutional shareholder sources. (http://bit.ly/1qGl7CE) Virgin Money made a lukewarm stock market debut on Thursday with a sale that netted 140 million pounds ($221 million) for its billionaire backers, marking a muted end to a roller coaster year for European listings. Virgin Money and Toscafund were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.

Shares in G4S were hit by an elaborate hoax over the group's finances, the Daily Telegraph reported. On Wednesday, the firm issued an encouraging trading update, only for a fraudulent statement to be emailed to journalists suggesting that the FTSE 100 company had discovered accounting errors and would restate its financial statements. Having climbed over 5% in the morning, G4S shares became volatile after the contents of the false statement were released on Twitter in the afternoon.

VIRGIN MONEY STARTS TRADING Sir Richard Branson's bank will list on the London Stock Exchange today, having priced its long-awaited IPO at the bottom of its price range. Virgin Money will be valued at £1.25bn, and Sir Richard's Virgin Group will reduce its stake from 47pc to 34pc

CSR investors await takeover: Soon-to-be-Qualcomm-owned British microchip-maker CSR posted a 16% decline in third quarter revenues to $212.2 million (£134 million). However, it saw its share price rise as the majority of the fall was restricted to its legacy home entertainment and handset businesses.

Speedy Hire earnings rise: Tool rental firm Speedy Hire has said earnings jumped 23.4% to £37.5 million after it cut costs and saw the construction market pick up in the six months to the end of September.

HICL offers 4.8% inflation linked dividend: HICL Infrastructure the FTSE 250 investment fund, remains an excellent income option, offering investors a prospective 4.8% inflation-linked dividend. The £1.5 billion infrastructure investment trust, set up in 2006, was one of the first of its kind. It was born out of the era of the public private partnerhips (PPP) that encouraged private investment to build public assets. Initially, construction firms build the assets – normally projects such as hospitals and schools – and, when they are completed, they are sold to funds such as HICL, which receive payments for owning the asset. At the most recent valuation of the fund in March, HICL said its portfolio of investments was worth £1.5 billion, with an average asset life of 22 years and debt agreed for 20.3 years. On that basis the shares at their current price are trading at a premium of about 22% to a net asset value of 123.1p per share. However, the company has raised £50 million in equity and purchased a number of assets since the March valuation. Part of the reason the premium exists is because HICL has said it expects to pay a dividend of 7.25p for the year ended March 2015. The dividend has increased by 2.2% for every year since 2006. That payout currently offers a forecast yield of 4.8%. The shares have raced away this year and are up 13.5% since we said buy (132.5p, October 22 2013), but that recommendation remains. HICL Infrastructure at 150.1p-0.5p Questor Says “Buy”.

Qatar and Brookfield in talks over higher Canary Wharf offer: Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and Canadian investment firm Brookfield are in discussions about an improved multi-billion takeover offer for Songbird Estates, the Owner of Canary Wharf.

Defensive Sainsbury’s may need more firepower in supermarket wars: Ascending the Sainsbury’s throne vacated by Justin King in July, Mike Coupe has quickly swapped his crown for a tin hat. The plan looks convincing when it comes to the balance sheet. The interim dividend is maintained, but the final payout will be cut to twice underlying earnings – suggesting a one-third reduction. Meanwhile, that screeching noise you hear is the sound of brakes being applied to capex: at £500 million-£550 million a year, it will be little more than half previous levels and has been reset to 2% of sales instead of 3% and counting. As for trading, Sainsbury’s approach relies on its insistence that it knows its customers better than anyone else. This should mean that the group can target its £150 million investment in price cuts so accurately that it does not matter that this looks paltry against the amounts announced by Morrison and available to Tesco. Sainsbury should also be able to improve the quality of some 3,000 of its own-brand products in a way that fosters customer satisfaction and – who knows – perhaps even loyalty. At Wednesday’s close, Sainsbury’s share price had slipped 3% to 266.1p, trading on a forward price/earnings ratio of 9-10 times. Hard to remember that it was trading above 400p within the last 12 months: harder still to believe that it will soon do so again.

YouTube launches music subscription service: Google is shaking up the digital music market with a paid subscription tier for YouTube and a series of enhancements to the world’s biggest video site.

BSkyB plans TV launches after European tie-up: BSkyB has promised to launch new television services, after completing the acquisition of its sister companies Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland for £6.89 billion.

BoE slashed its estimates on UK economic growth and inflation The Bank of England (BoE), in its latest quarterly inflation report, projected that the nation’s inflation rate would fall to 1.1% in the first quarter of 2015 and would remain below the central bank’s target of 2.0% for three years. The BoE expects the nation’s economy to grow 3.5% in 2014, unchanged from the previous estimate, but downgraded its growth estimate for 2015 to 2.9% from 3.1% and for 2016 to 2.6% from 2.8%.

UK house price balance registered a drop in October House price balance in the UK fell to a level of 20.00 in October, compared to a reading of 30.00 in the preceding month. Markets were anticipating house price balance to drop to 25.00.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.42% or $0.34 lower at $80.04 per barrel ahead of the Energy Information Administration weekly oil stockpiles data to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract declined 1.58% or $1.29, to settle at $80.38 per barrel, slipping below the $80 per barrel mark for the first time in four years despite OPEC’s monthly report revealing that their collective crude output declined by 226,400 barrels per day in October to a total of 30.25 million barrels. Separately, the American Petroleum Institute stated that oil supplies contracted by 1.5 million barrels last week.

The number of first time buyers fell 3% in September, the Independent reported. According to new figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, there were 26,800 first-time buyer loans in September, a 3% decline month-on-month, though the figure represented a 16% increase compared with the corresponding period in 2013. Lending to home movers also fell month-on-month for the second month in a row, with the number of 31,700 loans granted to movers in September, a 10% drop on the previous month.