Boris Johnson relaunches work-from-home advice to fight omicron Business

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British Gas owner Centrica has signed an agreement to offload oil and gas assets in the North Sea as it seeks to accelerate its progress towards net zero.

The sale of Spirit Energy’s Norwegian operations is a highly anticipated achievement for the company, which first revealed its intention to offload its 69% stake in 2019.

The deal is worth £ 800million overall, with Centrica expected to bring in around £ 560million.

Boss Chris O’Shea said the sale would put oil assets in the hands of buyers who can finance decommissioning costs, allowing Centrica to focus on creating value from Spirit Energy’s remaining gas reserves. .

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2) Amazon hit by IT issues wreaking havoc on home deliveries in the United States Businesses that use Amazon’s web services, such as Netflix, Disney +, Tinder, Coinbase, and RobinHood, have also been affected.

3) Large pay hikes for public sector workers pose inflation and NHS risk, Treasury says Chancellor’s plans could hamper efforts to recruit more NHS staff and amplify the effect of inflation

4) Apple to become the first $ 3 trillion company Report claims Tim Cook made secret $ 275 billion deal to spend more in China to appease Beijing

5) First Plant-Based Covid Vaccine Takes One More Step GlaxoSmithKline to co-produce Covid jab grown only in plant cells in a bid to catch rivals

What happened during the night

Asian stocks were broadly higher on Wednesday afternoon after a strong advance by Wall Street, but fears persisted over the debt-hampered Chinese real estate sector.

In Hong Kong, the Chinese real estate company Kaisa Group Holdings suspended the listing of shares just before the opening bell, “pending the publication by the company of an announcement containing inside information”, according to a file filed with the stock Exchange.

As of mid-afternoon in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was up 0.13%, while Shanghai was up more than 1%.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.4% at the close to end at 28,860.62.

Coming today

• Business : Numis, SSP Group, TUI Group (Annual results); Berkeley Group; Diligence (Intermediate results); McCol’s (Commercial update)
• Economy: Mortgage loan applications(WE)