Tuesday newspaper round-up: Oil prices, Barclays, Pension reform...

8th Mar 2011 06:38

The conflict in Libya helped propel the price of oil towards $120 a barrel on Monday as forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi and rebels trying to overthrow his regime formed a front line around the strategic oil town of Ras Lanuf. Saudi Arabian political activists have also added to energy fears with calls for a day of protest this week. Britain and France were leading diplomatic efforts to win support at the United Nations for a no-fly zone. These moves in part follow intense lobbying from the rebels, the Telegraph reports.Influential members of Opec, the oil cartel, are joining Saudi Arabia in raising output to cool soaring prices and allay fears of a supply crunch in the west. The behind-the-scenes move by Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria reflects growing unease among Opec members over the threat to the global economic recovery from crude's runaway rise amid the worsening crisis in Libya. US oil prices increased to their highest levels since September 2008 on Monday, trading at an intraday high of $106.95 a barrel, as Brent, the European benchmark, hit a session high of $118.50. Gold jumped to a fresh record of $1,444 an ounce. Industry officials said the production increase, expected by early April, would - together with an earlier rise by Saudi Arabia - almost make up the shortfall in supply from falling Libyan crude exports, the FT reports.Barclays triggered fury yesterday by revealing that nine senior bankers had received £88 million from share awards and that its chief executive Bob Diamond was awarded a package worth £23m. The bank disclosed yesterday that it had handed £90m to the heads of its investment bank. The packages, which include salaries, bonuses and share awards dating back several years, were revealed before publication of its annual report on Friday. Jerry del Missier, who became co-head of Barclays Capital, Barclays' investment banking division, on October 1, received £33m from share awards from previous years. Rich Ricci, BarCap's other co-head and another Barclays veteran, received £30m from the same historic share plans, the Times reports.Pensioners are to receive a flat-rate universal retirement payment of £140 a week that will end the injustice of working mothers being penalised for taking a break to raise children, under reforms to be signalled by Iain Duncan Smith today. The Work and Pensions Secretary will pledge to sweep away a host of complex rules and "fundamentally simplify" the basic state pension. Insiders said Mr Duncan's Smith's intervention represents the start of a Coalition drive to replace the existing state pension regime with a "single tier" retirement payment, the Telegraph reports.Retailers suffered their weakest sales growth for nearly two years in February, as hard-pressed consumers reined in their spending in the wake of soaring petrol prices, tax increases and uncertainty over jobs. The British Retail Consortium-KPMG survey warned that most non-food retailers from clothing to footwear groups saw either weak or falling sales last month. The monthly report found that total sales growth slowed to 1.1% in February, despite this figure taking account of new store openings, as well as price rises due rising commodity costs and the hike in VAT, the Independent reports.The hedge fund manager at the centre of one the biggest insider trading investigations undertaken in the United States is expected to give evidence at his own trial, which starts today. Raj Rajaratnam's high-risk strategy is said to be typical of a man who has described his investing success as being driven by pride and a determination to win. He once said: "I want to win every time. Taking calculated risks gets my adrenalin pumping," the Times reports.Greece reacted angrily to a credit ratings downgrade today just days before a summit of eurozone leaders to thrash out a permanent rescue system for its weaker economies. The three-notch downgrade by Moody's thrust Portugal and Spain back into the bailout spotlight, yet it could strengthen the case for both Greece and Ireland to receive better terms on their loans. The two countries are making the case for lower interest rates from their eurozone partners, or for longer to pay back their debts, in order to avoid stifling their own recoveries, the Times reports.Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivory Coast leader who the international community says lost presidential elections in November, announced he would nationalise the cocoa sector in a surprise move that threatened to drive the cocoa price sharply higher. The African country is the world's largest cocoa exporter, accounting for 40 per cent of global supplies of the bean used to make chocolate. Cocoa prices are nearing three-decade highs amid the worsening crisis in Ivory Coast, the FT reports.