Struggling retailer JJB Sports was today fined for failing to disclose it bought two smaller rivals for £16m (€18.5m) more than it told investors.

An alcoholic rogue trader who cost his company £6m (€7.4m) after a drunken golf weekend was today fined £72,000 (€89,000) and banned for a minimum of five years by the City watchdog.

Oil prices have been spiralling due to the “inexorable” rise in global demand rather than because of speculators, British MPs were told today.