Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word lost. 9 news.

JUST over half - 51.36 percent - of all stock investors showed no gains from China's bull market, while 48.6 percent gained more than 10 percent this year, according to a survey by the China Securities Journal. The latest survey of investors' annual returns reflected feedback from 11,205 small and medium-scale investors. About 13.5 percent of respondents said their stock investment grew by 10 percent, and 16.8 percent said their returns ranged from 20 percent to 50 percent. Another 11 percent saw their accounts grow by 50 percent to 99 percent. Those whose investments doubled comprised about 7.2 percent. The survey, carried out earlier this month, found that 13.5 percent of those polled broke even in 2007, while 16.6 percent said their investment shrank by 10 percent and 18.6 percent reported losses of 20 percent to 50 percent. About 2.4 percent of those polled said they lost more than half of their investment. Public interest, strong corporate profits and double-digit

JAPAN'S Cabinet approved a budget that includes increased spending on rural areas and social welfare, making it harder for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to balance the books by 2011. Japan's deficit is set to widen for the first time in five years and spending will rise 0.2 percent to 83.1 trillion yen (US$732 billion) in the year starting on April 1, according to a budget proposal released in Tokyo, Bloomberg News reported. Fukuda may struggle to meet his deadline as cooling global growth dims the outlook for Japan's export-dependent economy. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is under pressure to assist ailing regions and elderly voters after it lost control of the upper house in July, making it difficult for it to cut debt. "The current political situation is forcing Fukuda to spend more," said Hidenori Suezawa, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co in Tokyo. "Given that the nation's public debt is rising, the government needs to make drastic reforms in

CENTRO Properties Group, the Australian owner of US malls which lost 80 percent of its market value last week, has hired three advisers to help it refinance debt and negotiate funding options that may include selling assets. Lazard Carnegie Wylie will "facilitate any transaction" and find investors to help repay or settle bank debt, Jim Kelly, a spokesman for Centro in Sydney, said yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. KPMG will negotiate with Centro's bankers to help refinance A$3.9 billion (US$3.4 billion) by a February 15 deadline and Freehills will act as the company's legal advisers, Kelly said. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Scott said last week he may sell some of Centro's more than A$25 billion of shopping centers in the US, Australia and New Zealand after more than A$4 billion was wiped from the company's market value, making it Asia's worst casualty so far of the global credit squeeze. Melbourne-based Centro's eight most valuable properties are in Australia and

(AP) -- Scott Skiles was fired Monday as coach of the Chicago Bulls, who have one of the worst records in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls (9-16) have lost three of their last four and were booed throughout by the home crowd during Saturday night's 116-98 loss to the Houston Rockets. "This ...

If you chose to invest in shares this year and selected Europe as your venue, you probably are licking your wounds right now. Whether you invested through mutual funds, ETFs or picked your own stocks, Europe's exchanges were badly burned by the credit crunch that followed the American subprime mortgage meltdown. London's leading index, the FTSE-100, has returned 4% this year, the Dow Jones Europe gained 6% and France's CAC-40 did much of nothing. The leading Swiss index lost 3% and Sweden's fell 6%. At least Germany stood out from pack, with a 21% leap this year. ...

A patent dispute over the heartburn drug Protonix escalated Monday when Wyeth said it will sue to recover lost profits from sales of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s generic version.

Teva raised its full-year outlook after announcing its launch of generic equivalents to Wyeth's Protonix, an acid-reflux treatment. Wyeth said it will pursue a patent-infringement claim for lost profits and other damages.

Utility crews this morning are continuing to restore electricity to thousands of Chicago residences and businesses that lost power after a bitterly cold weekend storm combined with high winds ripped down trees and power lines across the area.

The sharp decline of the U.S. dollar since 2000 is affecting a broad swath of the world's population, with its drop on global markets being blamed at least in part for misfortunes as diverse as labor strikes in the Middle East, lost jobs in Europe and the end of an era of globe-trotting rich...