Miners, banks drag FTSE down 0.5 pct

Britain's top share index fell early on Monday, tracking weaker showings in Asia after falls on Wall Street on Friday, with declines by miners and banks countering a rally from pharmaceutical stocks.

Stock futures point to weaker start

Stock futures pointed to a weaker start for Wall Street on Monday. Futures for the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were down 0.2-0.4 percent by 3:58 a.m. EDT. Belgian drugs,

Cyprus retail sales bottom out in July

Financial Mirror analyisis shows that the decline in retail sales appears to have bottomed out in July, as the volume index fell according to provisional figures by 2.6% over July 2008, having