Shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai were little changed by the midday break on Monday, with investors trimming positions ahead of regional holidays and as U.S. markets remained rangebound. Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index ended the morning up 0.1% at 21,993.25, just shy of resistance at the 22,000-level. The China Enterprise Index of top

The dollar was on the defensive and gold held near a record high on Monday as possible further Federal Reserve moves to increase money supply weighed on the U.S. currency and boosted alternative assets. Uncertainty about the global economic recovery, fuelled by weak U.S. consumer sentiment data on Friday, and a public holiday in Japan

Levies on the financial sector are warranted in some cases but joint, coordinated action is preferable and taxation should not "eat up" banks' capital, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Friday. Bank President Thomas Mirow also told a conference in Vienna that emerging Europe needs to adopt a more balanced growth model

Henderson Global Investors has launched a new $1.1 bln fund targeting the U.S. apartment market, saying it was the best-placed property sector for rent growth and occupancy over the next five years. CASA V is the fifth in Henderson's CASA Partners U.S. Multi-Family Housing series of funds, which use low-cost, tax-exempt bond financing, Henderson said

Greece will auction a total of 300 mln euros of 13-week T-bills on Tuesday, the country's debt agency (PDMA) said on Friday. Greece kicked off a plan of monthly sales of short-term debt earlier this week, switching from quarterly sales, seeking to improve cash management as it struggles to emerge from its debt crisis. It

Cyprus and Russia signed a protocol for economic cooperation on Thursday, in the context of talks between Cypriot Minister of Finance Charilaos Stavrakis and Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Igor Manylov. Stavrakis and Manylov, in the framework of the 6th meeting of the Cyprus-Russia intergovernmental committee on economic cooperation and development, discussed issues concerning

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan kept allies in key posts in a cabinet reshuffle on Friday, signalling he plans to press ahead with efforts to curb a huge public debt as he struggles with a strong yen and weak economy. Kan, aware a fragile economic recovery could complicate those efforts, will instruct the new cabinet

Oil was on Friday headed for its biggest weekly drop in the last five, erasing gains related to the eight-day shutdown of Enbridge's largest Canada-U.S. pipeline, now scheduled to restart in a matter of hours. U.S. crude for October was unchanged at $74.57 a barrel by 0214 GMT. It touched $74.11 on Thursday, the lowest

Global stock markets were on their way to a third week of gains on Friday, with emerging markets favoured, while the threat of Japanese intervention kept the yen close to its lows for the month. Japanese stocks were poised for the largest weekly gains in two months following Tokyo's aggressive yen selling on Wednesday, which