Monday newspaper round-up: Asking prices, Tesco, Sainsbury's...

18th Aug 2014 07:05

House sellers' asking prices fell steeply by 2.9% month-on-month to £262,401 typically in August as the mood of the market grows calmer in London in particular, website Rightmove has reported. The dip as sellers adopt a "summer sales" attitude is the largest for the month of August that Rightmove has on its records, which go back more than a decade. - The Daily MailLeading hedge funds have bet hundreds of millions of pounds on shares in the UK's supermarkets falling further ? amid mounting speculation that Tesco could cut its dividend to finance another round of price cuts. - The TimesA Sainsbury's branch removed kosher food from its shelves over fears that anti-Israeli protesters would attack it. The branch manager of the store in Holborn, central London ordered the section to be emptied on Saturday afternoon, while protesters outside picketed it calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. The move prompted outrage after a photo of the empty shelves was posted on social media. - The GuardianThe bosses of Britain's 100 biggest listed companies are earning on average 143 times more than their staff, according to data that exposes the growing imbalance between how the nation's workforce and its business leaders are rewarded. The pay gap is widest at Rangold Resources, where boss Mark Bristow was paid £4.4m last year, nearly 1,500 times that of his average employee, many of whom work in the company's African mines. - The GuardianAlmost a million more women have moved into low-paid, insecure jobs since the recession which is fuelling a widening "inequality gap", according to a new report. The shift includes tens of thousands of women educated to degree level. The Fawcett Society said that since 2008, female "under-employment" in the UK has nearly doubled, to 789,000, and an additional 371,000 women have moved into self-employment, which is typically very low paid. - The ScotsmanWorkers from some of Britain's biggest commuter towns could be forced to pay £5,000 a year just to get to work under expected rail fare rises to be determined this week. The cost of an annual standard class season ticket into London from many parts of Kent is expected to pass the £5,000 mark for the first time, not including onward travel across the capital. - The TelegraphThe Serious Fraud Office is examining allegations that government schemes designed to increase lending to small businesses have been abused by high street banks. A claim that government-funded guarantees have been wrongfully secured in order to remove companies' overdrafts and pass risky SME loans on to the taxpayer is understood to be one of a range of issues being looked at by the SFO. - The TimesThe world's corporate giants are poised to tap into record cash reserves and possibly embark on a long-awaited spending spree, fuelling hopes of a massive boost to the global economic recovery. Companies, together with private equity firms, are coming under mounting pressure to delve into a global cash mountain of $7 trillion (£4.1 trillion) that has been amassed since the dark days of the financial crisis. - The TelegraphBC