A former chief executive of a company at the centre of an £740m (€917m) property case has claimed his signature was forged.

A senior AIB banker claimed there was no doubt that Achilleas Kallakis was at the helm of a number of special-purpose vehicles used to buy UK properties, jurors at Southwark crown court in London heard.

A former AIB employee who worked closely with Achilleas Kallakis was not acting as efficiently as the bank wanted, jurors at Southwark crown court heard in London.

AIB gave “unusually favourable” terms to Dublin-based Green Property to take an €800m property portfolio off its hands, former chairman Dermot Gleeson has told jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London.

Allied Irish Bank lent £98m (€123.5m) to an alleged fraudster on the back of dodgy guarantees from a top Chinese property firm, a London court heard yesterday.

AIB lent property tycoons Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams 12% more than was needed to buy the Daily Telegraph’s London headquarters building, at a time when it was keen to invest in UK real estate, jurors heard at Southwark crown court.

The purported guarantees from a Hong Kong developer was “significant”, AIB said, in fuelling its decision to loan money to property tycoon Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams.

Asia's major stock markets are mostly lower as nervous investors turn their focus to China after digesting a report showing a slowdown in Japanese industrial production.

Share prices closed the morning off their highs, lacking momentum to push the advance further after the Hang Seng index breached key resistance at 10,000 points, dealers said.

Share prices were lower, tracking the falls on Wall Street overnight, with sentiment continued under pressure after S&P's downgrade of the territory's local currency ratings outlook to negative from stable yesterday, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning lower on profit-taking following yesterday's gains, with sentiment also weighed down by Standard & Poor's downgrade of Hong Kong's local currency ratings outlook and the ratings on HSBC's Hong Kong units, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning higher on a technical rebound supported by the overnight bounce on Wall Street, with property stocks extending their gains after the government said it is looking into ways to support the sector, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning lower tracking the overnight falls on Wall Street amid caution in the lead up to the first anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks next week, dealers said.

Shares prices closed lower in cautious trade, with Wall Street's overnight performance seen as a mere short-term rebound rather than indicating a genuine improvement in sentiment, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning lower in listless trade, with investors waiting for the outcome of the US FOMC meeting tomorrow and the interim results announcement from China Mobile on Wednesday, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning lower due to the general perception that the outlook for Wall Street will remain unstable, in spite of its strong gains overnight, dealers said.

Share prices closed a relatively rangebound morning session higher in thin trade, rebounding slightly from yesterday's heavy losses, although investors continued to exercise caution after a volatile session on Wall Street overnight, dealers said.

Share prices closed a relatively lacklustre morning session slightly lower, with trade locked in a fairly tight range as a lack of solid leads kept most players on the sidelines, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning lower, pressured by Wall Street's overnight weakness following weak US retail sales data, dealers said.

Share prices were lower after Wall Street's decline, but off their lows with H-shares outperforming, amid general investor caution towards the weekend, dealers said.