Russian stocks suffer biggest fall since 2008 as war in Ukraine looms Business

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After the pandemic upended the housing market, we have the first sign that things are getting back to normal.

Buyer inquiries for properties in London jumped 24% this month from a year earlier – the strongest growth of any region. Asking prices also reached a record £667,001.

It’s a turnaround for the capital, which had underperformed the rest of the country during the pandemic, and suggests buyers are once again looking for homes in suburban areas when they return to the office.

Overall UK house prices rose 9.5% year-on-year to £348,808, the highest annual growth since 2014.

5 things to start your day

1) Developers warn of senior housing crisis Britain’s biggest care home builder said demand for homes for the elderly was four times greater than supply.

2) Channel 4 launches new political show with Andrew Neil to counter Piers Morgan’s TalkTV The broadcaster is bolstering its news output by launching a 10-part live political interview series starting in May.

3) Credit Suisse leak reveals criminals and dictators among its clients Credit Suisse has been rocked by a huge data breach, the latest scandal to engulf the Swiss bank, with new accusations that it served some clients who were allegedly involved in torture and drug trafficking.

4) Delay banning ‘red diesel’ or businesses will collapse, Rishi Sunak warned Ending the use of low-tax fuel will cost businesses up to £500million and jeopardize the UK’s recovery, say industry groups.

5) UK set to reject Canada’s hormone beef demands in first setback in trade talks Government sources said it was highly unlikely to end the ban on the use of hormones in beef production after Canada’s trade minister signaled that Ottawa would push for the UK abandons its stricter standards on this controversial practice.

What happened overnight

Asian stock markets pared early losses on Monday as a glimmer of hope emerged for a diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine standoff, though there remains a lot of devil in the details.

Wall St futures rallied on the news US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle to hold a summit on the Ukraine crisis.

The one chance for a peaceful solution was enough for S&P 500 stock futures to reverse initial losses and trade 0.4% higher. Nasdaq futures edged up 0.2%, after falling more than 1% earlier.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan pared its losses to 0.4%, while Japan’s Nikkei halved its decline to 0.9%.

coming today

• Business : Dechra Pharmaceuticals (intermediate results)
• Economy: Manufacturing and services PMIs (UK, EU); Rightmove property prices (UK); interest rate (China)