Deutsche Boerse and London Stock Exchange (LSE) agreed to combine in a $30 billion (€27bn) deal to create a European trading powerhouse better able to compete with US rivals encroaching on their turf.

The London Stock Exchange and German rival Deutsche Borse revealed plans to save more than €448m a year as they agreed a tie-up to create an exchange giant worth more than €26bn.

The London Stock Exchange is in talks over a possible £20 billion merger with Germany's Deutsche Boerse to create one of the biggest exchange companies in the world.

Petroceltic said yesterday that it and its partners had drawn up a short list for engineering services to develop its Ain Tsila gas asset in Algeria and said the award of the contract later this year would mark a “a milestone” in plans to export gas for the first time in 2018.

The wholesale gas market sees the purchase and sale of energy products - electricity and natural gas – by energy producers and energy retailers.

Speculators could soon be hoarding crude oil in supertankers off the coast of Ireland and other European countries if prompt oil prices keep falling, shipping and oil executives say.

THE European Union is probing investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, over possible collusion in credit default swaps, which many politicians blame for exacerbating the eurozone debt crisis.

An oil broker suffered losses of £6m (€7m) after a suspected rogue trader allegedly carried out unauthorised trading, according to reports.

London oil traders famed for stripy blazers and frenzied hand signals took their final bow today as the high-tech era claimed another victim in the City.