Sainsbury in the dark over 10% stake

Retailer furious it had not been notified of the location of Tchenguiz after the entrepeneur was forced to unwind in wake of Icelandic banking collapse

• Lombard: Sainsbury’s mysterious disappearing stake

On London: Fear prevents patient from responding to treatment

Institutional investors are worried that central banks have not responded quickly enough to the banking crisis

FT house price index falls for seventh month

House prices in England and Wales have fallen for the seventh consecutive month, with all regions including London now registering annual declines, according to the FT house price index

Banks analyse fine print of bail-out

Britain’s largest banks were on Thursday locked in meetings with regulators, officials and investors as they attempted to work out the implications of the government’s £400bn bail-out package

Vodafone makes offer for Vodacom

Vodafone’s strategy of seeking to boost growth by expanding its presence in emerging markets took a big step forward last night when it announced a R22.5bn ($2.5bn) offer for a controlling stake in Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator

Greggs expects £3m shortfall in profits

The sandwiches retailer, warned profits would be £3m lower than it had previously expected and said it was cutting back capital spending by 10 per cent

Strong profits lift WH Smith shares

Shares in WH Smith received a boost as the stationery and books retailer reported better-than-expected underlying annual profits and a 20 per cent rise in its dividend

UK trade deficit wider than expected

Britain’s trade deficit slightly narrowed in August to £4.7bn from £4.8bn in July but was still wider than expected, as exports were hit by a slowing world economy that offset sterling’s sharp fall