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By Kim McLaughlin STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Volvo reported a better than expected 23 percent rise in quarterly pretax profit on Friday on strong demand and raised its forecasts for the European and North American lorry markets. Second-quarter pretax profit at the world's second biggest lorry maker reached 6.46 billion crowns (476 million pounds), above the average forecast of 6.03 billion crowns in a Reuters poll of 17 analysts. "The reasons behind the earnings are a strong demand for ou ...

Geoff Foster, Daily Mail21 July 2006 NOW apparently locked in exclusive talks with Whitbread, dealers raised their glasses to Mitchells & Butlers as shares of the All Bar One-to-Harvester pubs and restaurant chain touched 525p before closing 3½p better at 514½p. OTHER STORIES Market report: Friday preview Top of the investment class A busted flush? Standard Life - yo ...

Asian stocks slipped Friday morning as investors locked in profits following the previous session's strong rally. Losses on Wall Street in the wake of disappointing earnings from Intel, combined with some weaker-than-expected U.S. economic data also weighed on market sentiment in the Asia-Pacific region. The Nikkei 225was down 0.64% to 14,851.84. The broader Topix index of Tokyo shares was down ...

Michael Clarke, This is Money21 July 2006 THE way High Street banks make their money is simple – charge your borrowers more than you pay out to your savers. And judging by the record profits most of our banks announced earlier this year, they do it very well. THE BANK OF MICHAEL: You can borrow and lend money on your own terms WANT TO KNOW MORE? NOT FOR YOU? Search for a personal loan OTHER STORIES How to buy a dream car Don't get burnt this holiday New on the m ...

By Mike Power PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank, said on Thursday it was buying Panama's leading bank Grupo Banistmo for $1.77 billion (958 million pounds) to boost its presence in Latin America. Under the agreement, HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research) will offer Banistmo (XBAN.LA: Quote, Profile, Research) stockholders $52.63 per share. Owners of 65 percent of Banistmo have already agreed to sell at that price, the minimum threshold for the deal to go thro ...

By Eric Auchard SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday second-quarter net profit more than doubled as the Web search leader dodged a trend of slowing growth that has hurt rivals Yahoo and eBay. The results, which significantly beat market expectations, sent Google's shares up as much as 2 percent in after-hours trade. Favourable tax rates, combined with a higher percentage of revenue coming from Google.com rather than through outside advertis ...

By Rachelle Younglai TORONTO (Reuters) - Teck Cominco Ltd.'s (TCKb.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) hostile offer for Inco Ltd. (N.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) is more alive than dead, analysts said on Thursday, after Xstrata Plc (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research) raised its bid for Falconbridge Ltd. (FAL.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) , throwing cold water on Inco's friendly offer for the copper  ...

By Jessica Wohl NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co. (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday said its board authorised the repurchase of up to 300 million shares, or nearly 13 percent of its outstanding stock, based on growth prospects at the world's largest soft drink company. Shares of Coca-Cola jumped in after hours trading following the announcement. "Things are getting better, that's w ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. late Thursday reported second-quarter profit rose from a year ago, before it divested its unprofitable memory-chip business, but its results lagged expectations amid lower prices for personal-computer chips. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD, the world's No. 2 maker of PC chips, said second- quarter net income was $89 million, or 18 cents a share ...

LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones) -- Microsoft Corp. said late Thursday quarterly profit dropped 24% as higher expenses and legal charges hurt its bottom line, but revenue rose more than expected on stronger sales of server software and Xbox 360 video-game consoles. Microsoft (MSFT) also issued an upbeat financial forecast for the coming fiscal year and announced plans to buy back up to $40 billion worth o ...