Glencore announces details of its planned flotation, valuing the commodities trading company at $61bn, and making four staff billionaires.

Royal Bank of Scotland reports a loss of £1.13bn for 2010, a bigger figure than analysts had been expecting.

British oil explorer Regal Petroleum is set to fall into foreign hands after accepting an offer valuing it at £120m. Ukrainian firm Energees raised its bid from 24p a share to 38p, meaning it will pay £85m for a 70pc stake.

The cost of cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill pushes BP into its first annual loss since 1992, but the firm restores dividend payments.

Shares in Easyjet sink more than 13% after the budget airline warns higher fuel costs could double half-year losses.

US bank Morgan Stanley reports a 60% jump in fourth-quarter profit, helped by rising revenue in its retail brokerage business.

Vodafone Group Plc said it objected to Essar Group’s plan to value a stake in their Indian mobile- phone operator while Essar still has the option to sell its holding for as much as $5 billion.

Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health-care products, is considering a fresh takeover bid for Smith & Nephew Plc, the Sunday Times reported, without saying how it got the information.

The oil company formerly run by imprisoned oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has fired off a warning to BP shareholders, saying their deal with the Kremlin is founded on “illegal auctions, bogus bankruptcy fire sales and expropriations”

BP is set to announce a major deal with the state run energy giant Rosneft, according to BBC sources in Russia.