Alpha Bank, Greece's third-largest lender, said on Tuesday first-half net profit fell 82.2% year-on-year, hit by a one-off tax, higher provisions and weaker loan growth as the recession deepened. Alpha reported net earnings of 38.2 mln euros, above market expectations. Analysts in a Reuters poll were forecasting net profit at 22.8 mln euros for the
More
Research In Motion will give India access to secure BlackBerry data beginning Wednesday, a government source said on Monday, leading New Delhi to put off a decision on whether to shut down the smartphone. Concerned about militants using the BlackBerry or Internet to plan attacks, India is also pushing RIM, Google and Skype to set
More
Tokyo stocks fell 3% on Tuesday, their worst daily drop in three months, after the Bank of Japan's emergency moves the day before failed to curb the yen's strength and disheartened investors bailed out of the market. Market players noted disappointment after the BOJ expanded its fund supply tool, widely seen as an ineffective move,
More
Chinese shares retreated on Tuesday and looked set to end the month flat to slightly lower as the cloudy outlook for growth in developed economies pushed investors to the sidelines. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.47% at the midday break with global market weakness offsetting a generally strong corporate earnings performance from Chinese companies.
More
Bank of Cyprus, the country's largest lender said first- half net profit rose 10 percent to EUR163 mln. Group net interest income rose to EUR496 mln, up 28 percent on the first half of 2009. The bank said it would pay shareholders a half-year dividend of 0.06 cents in cash and shares. Profit before provisions
More
Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd (HB) reported that first half 2010 net profits attributed to shareholders increased to EUR 11.1 mln from EUR 2.06 mln a year ago but below analyst expectations. Improved profitability is mainly attributed to lower provisions amounting to EUR20.3 mln compared to EUR 29.8 mln in provisions a year ago in
More
Indian officials meet on Monday to decide whether to ban some of Research In Motion's BlackBerry services, a day before the deadline runs out for the firm to give security agencies access to its secure data. Government sources have said the August 31 deadline could be extended if Research In Motion says it has a
More
The Bank of Japan buckled under government pressure and eased monetary policy at an emergency meeting on Monday in an effort to curb a rise in the yen that is threatening a fragile economic recovery. The yen bounced back to day highs after the central bank expanded a scheme supplying cheap fixed-rate loans to banks,
More
Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks rose on Monday, with the Hang Seng Index poised to post its biggest single-day percentage gain in four weeks as Chinese banks rebounded on improved market sentiment. The Hang Seng Index finished morning trading up 0.71% at 20,744.37, ending six straight sessions of losses and tracking stronger overseas markets as
More
Australia's political gridlock was no closer to a resolution that would provide market certainty on Monday after "kingmaker" independent MPs unveiled new demands as the price for their support to form a minority government. Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie presented Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard and conservative opposition Leader Tony Abbott with a list of 20 priorities
More