Bordeaux vintage proving a bottler
LONDON. Wine buyers are spending as much as £1000 ($A1775) a bottle on 2009 vintage Bordeaux in the latest sign that the market has reached a new frenzy. Wine experts have agreed the 2009 vintage is one of the finest in recent years, with some declaring it the best in living memory, thanks to last year's perfect conditions of a wet spring and hot summer. Speculators, investors and wine lovers have joined waiting lists to get their hands on the wine.
Simon Davies of specialist merchant Fine & Rare, said: ''These release prices are just unprecedented. And they have gone up and up as the weeks have progressed. Lafite-Rothschild was originally released at about £480 a bottle, but is now more than £1000. It has been an incredible few weeks.''
Raj returns hoping to do business
Advertisement: Story continues belowDEHLI. British Prime Minister David Cameron will lead a senior cabinet delegation to Delhi this month to build a new ''special relationship'' with India in an attempt to boost trade.
Foreign Secretary William Hague, Chancellor George Osborne and Business Secretary Vince Cable will be among ministers who will accompany him to help create an ''enhanced partnership'' with one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
Ministers believe Britain must dramatically increase its business with Indian companies and universities to win a share of retail, banking and services markets, which are expected to grow by 10 per cent a year.
India announced this week that it may deregulate its retail sectors in a move that could allow British supermarket companies, such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, to establish stores throughout the country. Much of India's farm produce rots on the way to market because there are too few refrigerated trucks and little transport management.
Britain is also hoping India will lift restrictions in the banking, insurance, financial and professional services sectors and allow law and accountancy firms to practise in the country. Ministers believe British universities could help meet India's growing demand for higher education places.
Regulators back stress test for banks
LONDON. European banking regulators have tried to show that their health checks on the sector were severe enough by revealing that they were assuming a worsening of market conditions during May's sovereign debt crisis.
But while the Committee of European Bank Supervisors named the 91 banks subjected to stress tests, it failed to give precise details of the scenarios used. Banking experts noted that Standard Chartered had been omitted from the list.
The regulators are testing their banks to check they have enough capital to withstand a two-year scenario that assumes a 3 per cent drop in European Union gross domestic product compared with official forecasts. But while revealing that the worst-case scenarios were being tailor-made for each country, it provided no further detail in a move that may frustrate investors seeking more comfort that the stress tests are severe enough.