Author: KMFSLLP

Sri Lankan shares slid for a third session on Friday, weighed down by financial stocks.

U.S. homebuilding surged to a 13-year high in December as activity increased across the board, suggesting the housing market recovery was back on track amid low mortgage rates, and could help support the longest economic expansion on record.

* PM offers resignation after embarrassing recording circulates

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Friday it will review a petition asking the agency to formally investigate 500,000 Tesla Inc models over sudden unintended acceleration reports.

Property agent Yuan Bin thought he must have misheard when news broke on Nov. 11 - China's equivalent of Black Friday - that the Shenzhen government was cancelling a capital gains tax on some apartments in the southern boomtown.

Travelex said the first of its customer-facing systems in Britain were up and running and a phased global restoration of systems is "firmly underway", days after hackers took hold of its systems, leading to a global blackout of its online services. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru)

Nigeria's top lender by assets, Access Bank, has acquired Kenya's Transnational Bank, the Kenyan central bank said on Friday.

As cash runs short at Lebanon's banks, so has the patience of depositors. Hit by restrictions on withdrawals, some are taking extreme steps, occupying branches and in one case taking an employee hostage, to squeeze what they can from their accounts.

* PM offers resignation after embarrassing recording circulates

HSBC is cutting around 100 roles in its equities business with the bulk of the layoffs falling on its continental European trading floors, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.