1 Five years ago Celine Halioua, an Oxford University dropout, founded a start-up called Loyal in San Francisco, aimed at developing drugs that could prolong dogs’ lives. Loyal is now close to gaining approval for the first treatment, for any species, that would lengthen lifespans without targeting a recognised disease.
2 The City regulator has told motor finance suppliers that they must conserve cash to cope with potential compensation bills arising from its investigation into car loans that City analysts think could reach billions of pounds.
3 Jane Fraser, the British boss of Citigroup, has signalled that the American bank has reached a turning point after completing a restructuring involving 7,000 job losses.
4 The FTSE 100 closed at a 52-week high after data showed the economy had grown for a second month in a row in February, meaning the UK was likely to have exited one of the shallowest recessions in recent history. London’s leading share index, which touched a new intraday high during the session, finished up 71.78 points, or 0.9 per cent, at 7,995.58.
5 Apple has warned high-profile iPhone users in 92 countries they may have been targeted by “mercenary spyware”. The California-based company has issued a similar warning previously.
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6 Three companies are looking to delist from the Alternative Investment Market, London’s junior stock exchange, and their plans are being put to investors in shareholder votes. Two involve a pair of Britain’s leading biotechnology players. The moves have highlighted growing concerns about the strength of the market.
7 Green shoots are appearing in the moribund flotations market and a Labour government could further revive international investor appetite for London floats, according to Peel Hunt, the broker.
8 Gold prices topped $2,400 and were on track for a fourth straight weekly gain despite hopes of rate cuts fading in recent days. The precious metal has been on a largely uninterrupted rise since mid-February, when it cost about $2,000 an ounce.
9 The number of UK company directors disqualified for abusing Covid support schemes rose by 80 per cent in the last year, with more than 800 being banned in 2023, according to the Insolvency Service.
10 Jambu Palaniappan grew up in Silicon Valley in a technology industry where it can be hard to sort the visionaries from the fantasists. It should not be much of a surprise, then, that he now runs the Portsmouth-based Checkatrade, which helps customers to separate reliable tradespeople from those who weave alternative realities of their own.
