Newspaper Briefing, including 'Mario Draghi under pressure as Europes banks beg for help'

Gilt futures held steady but lagged bunds after a well-bid German debt auction and fears that an agreement to solve the Eurozone debt crisis will not be reached. The March gilt future settled one tick down on the day at 114.33, while the equivalent bund future was 78 ticks higher. In the cash market, the yield on ten-year gilts was two basis points lower at 2.23%.

Deal of the day: Roofing might not be the most interesting work but at least Hightex is going to be doing it in one of the worlds greatest football stadiums. Shares in the group rose 0.35p to 1.97p, after it won a 10 million contract to install the cable and membrane roof structure for Rio de Janeiros Maracaa stadium, where the final of the 2014 World Cup will be played.

Tiddler to watch: Petroceltic added 0.7p to 7.4p, after reporting the best appraisal results to date at its Ain Tsila field in Algeria. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said that the oil flow rate had reassured it of the fields productivity and, as such, its commercial prospects, which would generate greater interest in an upcoming sale of a stake in the project.

Mario Draghi under pressure as Europes banks beg for help: Mario Draghi is expected to announce fresh, ultra-long term loan programmes to help to alleviate the funding gap in the regions banking sector this afternoon. The ECB said that banks had demanded more than $50 billion of cut-rate dollar loans, the most since the aftermath of the Lehman crash, after it joined the Federal Reserve and other central banks in a co-ordinated action last week.

Unions broadside greets George Osborne plan to end national pay bargaining: The Government faced fresh anger from unions after the Chancellor announced plans to end national pay bargaining sooner than expected. Signalling that he was keen to get the ball rolling, George Osborne told the Treasury Select Committee that he had written to pay review bodies about his plans to base public sector wages on local conditions and that he hoped to implement the new rules in the pay year 2013-14.

Protests force Ministers to shelve supermarket opening: The Prime Minister of India was facing humiliation after he was forced to abandon a long-awaited plan to allow foreign chains such as Tesco to open supermarkets in the country. The U-turn, announced by Manmohan Singh in Parliament, followed two weeks of mounting street protests by shopkeepers who feared that the big multinational chains would drive them out of business.

Apple loses latest round of iPad battle: The unfettered rise of Apples iPad has hit an unexpected stumbling block after a court in China rejected the companys claim to the iPad trademark, potentially hitting sales in the worlds largest consumer market. Apple has been in a long dispute with an Asian screens manufacturer over ownership of the iPad trademark.

Market slide takes the shine off Brewin Dolphin earnings: Volatile markets wiped 1 billion off the value of Brewin Dolphins assets under management in the second half. Its assets, managed mainly on behalf of wealthy private clients, fell by 4% between March and the end of September as Brewin felt the effects of sliding equity prices.

Ireland urged to consider selling Nama: Ireland should look into selling the National Asset Management Agency once it has made significant progress in disposing of its toxic loans, a government-commissioned report is expected to say. The agency, which has a 31 billion (26.5 billion) loan book, had previously been expected to dispose of all the assets it could.

Shares may become also-rans as we get older but not bolder: A muted desire for shares among cautious investors in the East and ageing populations in the West will hamper company growth, according to new research. The McKinsey Global Institute calculates that by 2020 an equity gap of $12.3 trillion (7.8 trillion) is likely to open up between household demand for listed shares and corporate requirements for additional equity.

Capital expense for parking your car: Parking spaces in London are so expensive now that buying a home with a private berth for your car costs more than a house in Middlesbrough. Research shows that owning a home in the capital with off-street parking can add an extra 10% to the value of the house, according to ING Direct.

Cost of power line soars to 750 million: The cost of the controversial Beauly-Denny electricity line has more than doubled, to nearly 750 million, because of delays and last-minute landscape improvement measures demanded by the Scottish government. The original estimate of 331 million in 2004 had climbed to 539 million earlier this year.

Britain tops the league for spying on employees: British companies are more likely to carry out surveillance on their staff than their overseas counterparts, a survey has found. One in four workers believes that their e-mails are being monitored, compared with only 28% of workers internationally. Almost half, 48% expect their employers to be monitoring their e-mails within ten years.