London - Britain's leading Marks & Spencer fashion and food retail chain Tuesday reported a 34-per-cent drop in half-yearly profits and warned that 2009 would be a "tough year."

Profits fell to 297.8 million pounds (470.5 million dollars) in the six months up to the end of September, the company said. It had earlier reported a 5.7-per cent drop in sales during that period.

Zurich - Swiss banking giant UBS AG reported Tuesday its first profit in four quarters.

The world's biggest wealth manager, which has emerged as one of the major victims of the recent round of financial turmoil triggered by the US mortgage market meltdown, reported a third-quarter profit of 296 million Swiss francs (256.3 million dollars).

The Zurich-based bank said last month it planned to raise 6 billion Swiss francs from the government and it planned to shift 60 billion Swiss francs of toxic assets to a special Swiss central bank fund.

The announcement of the closure of

Zurich - The weak global economy has affected third-quarter profits at the world's largest recruitment firm, Adecco, sending them sharply down by 23 per cent compared to the same quarter of 2007, to 168 million euros (212 million dollars).

Revenue dropped by 6 per cent over the same period to 5.1 billion euros, the company reported Tuesday in Zurich.

Revenue fell by 9 per cent in the United States and Canada, the second most important market.

Zurich - Switzerland's reinsurance giant Swiss Re reported a surprise third-quarter loss Tuesday, slipping 304 million Swiss francs (259 million dollars) into the red after registering a profit of

Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh would hold a meeting with the industry leaders and associates on Monday. The meeting is aimed to review the impact of global financial crisis on Indian economy and prepare India's stance at forthcoming G20 Summit.