The enthusiasm which greeted Bradford-based Wm Morrison when it moved its homespun offer South and absorbed Safeway a decade ago has turned to dust. The company is in its fourth year of declining same-store sales, turnover for the past six months is down by 5 per cent and profits have slumped 47 per cent to £126million. Some 11 supermarkets with 900 jobs are in the firing line for closure.

Mike Ashley is Britain's most enigmatic billionaire. In a relatively short period he has turned his Sports Direct chain into one of the nation's most successful retailers. It generates profits of £420million a year and dominates the sports equipment, fitness and leisure sales industry.

Sports Direct's threat to keep the press out of its annual general meeting failed. The attendance, just 27 shareholders, may have been thin compared to the thousands who turn up at Marks & Spencer gatherings but the debate was more tumultuous. More than 50 per cent of non-Ashley shareholders voted down the pay report. He should heed their message and strengthen the board and governance without delay.

As the country was welcoming a new monarch in 1952, the economy and the City was in flux. But how has Britain's top flight of publicly traded companies changed during her reign? A month after Princess Elizabeth was proclaimed Queen, chancellor R A Butler warned in his Budget that Britain could become 'bankrupt, idle and hungry'. The FT30 was the equivalent of today's FTSE 100 index but with some notable differences.

In quick succession, Japanese firms have snapped up the City's local paper the FT, and now the Lloyds's broker Amlin for a cool £3.5bn.

Communist authorities have issued instructions to media outlets not to 'exaggerate panic or sadness', or use 'emotionally charged words such as 'slump', 'spike' or 'collapse'.Yesterday one of the country's most prominent fund managers re-emerged after disappearing for days following the crash, only to claim she had not been detained by authorities but instead had been 'on holiday meditating'.

The chastening fund raising operation at commodity and mining behemoth Glencore, as it moves to cut its debt burden, brings the curtain down on Ivan Glasenberg's imperial ambitions. In spite of Glencore's commodity trading skills and global reach into every market from wheat to oil and coal to copper it unaccountably seemed to think the commodity 'super-cycle,' a period of ever rising prices, would go on forever.

The grocer has pulled out of its Homeplus grocery chain in South Korea. Britain's largest retailer has been forced to sell the shops, once described as the crown jewels of its international business, to raise £4bn in a desperate attempt to fix problems at its key UK operations. Homeplus had been a star performing business for Tesco.

The biggest analysis of the energy market since privatisation is meant to be the 'silver bullet' that finally makes the industry work more competitively and to the benefit of customers. However, rather than dramatically shaking up the market, there must be concerns that the Competition and Market Authority's proposals will not increase consumer engagement and won't break the stranglehold that the Big Six still have on 90 per cent of the market.

The fall has wiped roughly £1.6trillion off shares in China's main market. That is close to the value of the whole FTSE 100. This is despite the Chinese government spending £150 billion trying to support share prices.