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Vistry raises 2021 profit outlook on strong demand By Reuters

(Reuters) - Homebuilder Vistry Group on Monday raised its annual profit forecast on strong demand, as the housing sector benefits from an extension of a property tax holiday and lower interest rates. Vistry said it expects adjusted profit before tax for financial year 2021 to be about 325 million pounds ($458.06 million), up from a prior forecast of 310 million pounds. ($1 = 0.7095 pounds) ...

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Rising raw materials prices could put pressure on downstream firms – China stats bureau By Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - Rising raw materials prices could put pressure on downstream firms, said Fu Linghui, an NBS spokesman, at a news briefing in Beijing on Monday. However China is able to keep consumer price inflation steady this year, he said. China's factory output growth slowed in April from the jump seen in the previous month while retail sales missed analyst expectations, indicating more pressure on the recovery in consumption. ...

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China bars foreign curriculum, ownership in some private schools By Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's State Council announced new laws halting the teaching of foreign curriculum in schools from kindergarten to grade nine (K-9) and prohibiting the ownership or control of any private K-9 schools by foreign entities. The laws, which will come into effect on Sept. 1, are the latest in a series of measures taken by Beijing to tighten control of its fast-growing education sector and public discourse. China currently has private K-9 schools which teach local and foreign curriculum. The members of the board of directors or other decision making body at a private...

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BP’s lobbying for gas shows rifts over path to net-zero emissions By Reuters

By Shadia Nasralla, Simon Jessop and Kate Abnett LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Oil major BP (LON:BP) has lobbied for the EU to support natural gas, a move that exposes divergent views among investors and reflects a wider European dispute about the role of the fossil fuel in the transition to a lower-carbon world. The European Commission - aiming to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 - had planned to omit gas-fuelled power plants from a new list of investments that can be marketed as sustainable, but delayed the decision last month following complaints from...

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China central bank injects 100 billion yuan through medium-term loans – statement By Reuters

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's central bank rolled over maturing medium-term loans on Monday, while keeping the interest rate unchanged for the 13th month in a row. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in an online statement it was keeping the rate on 100 billion yuan ($15.54 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions steady at 2.95% from previous operations. The fresh fund injection via the liquidity tool effectively offset the same amount of such MLF loans due on the same day. The central bank also injected another 10...

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Dollar fights for footing as Fed minutes eyed By Reuters

By Tom Westbrook SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar found pockets of support in Asia on Monday, but struggled to post gains, as investors are heavily positioned for it to fall further while the U.S. Federal Reserve holds interest rates low and U.S. trade and current account deficits grow. Easing commodity prices and virus outbreaks in Singapore and Taiwan - where COVID-19 had been contained - helped modest dollar gains of 0.2% against the Australian and New Zealand dollars in the early part of the Asia session. [AUD/] The greenback also rose 0.1% against the...

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China April home prices quicken to 8-month high By Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) -New home prices in China grew at the fastest pace in eight months in April, data showed on Monday, despite the government's ramped-up efforts to tame the red-hot market and tackle an alarming build-up in debt. Average new home prices in 70 major cities grew 0.6% in April from a month earlier, the quickest pace since August 2020 and a notch up from a 0.5% gain in March, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. On a year-on-year basis, new home prices rose to an eight-month high...

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AT&T close to deal to combine media empire with Discovery-reports By Reuters

(Reuters) - U.S. telecoms giant AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) is nearing a deal to combine its media assets, including CNN and HBO, with Discovery Inc, the owner of lifestyle TV networks such as HGTV and TLC, according to news reports citing unnamed sources. The deal would mark the unwinding of AT&T's $108.7 billion acquisition of U.S. media conglomerate Time Warner in 2018, and it would underscore its recognition that TV viewership has moved to streaming, where scale is required to take on the likes of Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) Co. The combination...

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London office market undergoes makeover to woo post-pandemic workforce – Deloitte By Reuters

(Reuters) - Developers in London are revamping office spaces to suit the post-pandemic workforce, a survey showed on Monday, as weakening demand for workspaces poses a major concern in one of the world's biggest financial hubs. New construction starts have jumped by a fifth in the six months ended March to 3.1 million square feet, Deloitte's London Office Crane Survey showed, with 56% of the pipeline expected to involve an extensive upgrade of existing office stock. Lockdowns since early last year have forced millions of people to work from home, but easing restrictions are driving...

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Asia shares left listless by mixed China data By Reuters

By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian share markets turned mixed on Monday as data on Chinese retail sales missed expectations though industrial output stayed solid, while more evidence of global inflation pressures helped gold to a three-month peak. Chinese retail sales rose 17.7% in April on a year ago, short of forecasts for a jump of 24.8%, while industrial output matched expectations with a rise of 9.8%. The spread of the coronavirus was also a hindrance with Singapore to shut most schools from Wednesday after reporting the highest number of local infections in months....

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