The 10 biggest business stories on Thursday November 12
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Version 0 of 1. 1. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a visit to Britain today that he hopes will yield trade deals worth billions of dollars. Diplomats say deals worth £8 billion-£12 billion ($12 billion-$18 billion) could be signed during his visit to London, with the Indian leader keen to buy 20 more BAE Systems Hawk trainer aircraft to be made in Bengaluru. 2. Morgan Stanley, better known for underwriting bonds than for retail banking, plans to offer savings accounts and certificates of deposits next year to wring more profit from its wealth management clients, executives told Reuters. 3. Property prices and the cost of renting a home will continue to rise owing to a shortage of supply, a survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) found. 4. The day after announcing it had agreed to be taken over by AB InBev, SABMiller has reported six month results. Pre-tax profit fell 18 per cent to $2.3 billion (£1.5 billion). 5. Apple is in talks with banks in the US about creating its own mobile-to-mobile payments service that sounds a lot like PayPal's Venmo app, according to The Wall Street Journal. 6. Burberry has beaten expectations, posting a marginal rise in profits and revenue. The luxury brand nudged sales up from £1.1 billion to £1.104 billion for the six months to 30 September, while adjusted pre-tax profits rose from £152.2 million to £152.9 million. UBS had estimated that profits would drop 7 per cent to £142 million. 7. French luxury group stuck to its full-year revenue growth target on Thursday after third-quarter sales rose 7.9 per cent on a like-for-like basis, driven by demand for leather goods and ready-to-wear fashion. Revenue reached £808 million in the quarter, Hermes said in a statement. 8. Aerospace group Rolls-Royce has warned that its profits in 2016 will be hit by £650m of “headwinds” as a result of “sharply weaker demand”. 9. Online store Alibaba announced on Thursday that Chinese shoppers spent over $14 billion on Singles' Day, smashing last year's figure of $9 billion. 10. A mystery buyer based in Hong Kong is believed to have spent $76.9 million (£50.5 million) on two diamonds snapped up at auction over two days in Geneva. |