The fallout from last year's West Coast mainline fiasco was the �final straw� that forced FirstGroup to launch a heavily discounted rights issue on Monday, according to its chief executive.

The FTSE 100 has been trading at a fresh five and a half year high close to the end of the session at one point hitting 6754.79 beating the last highest benchmark of 6540.10, which was achieved in July 2007.

The president of the CBI is delivering a firm message from some of Britain's largest employers to David Cameron, calling on him to stop "moralising" on how multinational corporations should be taxed.

The European Commission investigation into the possible manipulation of oil price benchmarks has widened, with Brussels seeking new information from trading houses, including Glencore, following last week's raids on oil majors.

Households struggling with rising costs were told in no uncertain terms today to expect the squeeze on their incomes to continue for the foreseeable future as the influential Ernst & Young ITEM Club warned above target inflation would be a fact of life for at ...