Swedish-Swiss electrical engineering group ABB said it won two orders worth 2.60 billion crowns ($330 million) to build a power plant in Greece and an order for two compressor stations from Poland. The Greek power plant was ordered by Public Power Corp (PPC) in Athens and is worth 1.25 billion crowns. The compressor stations order from Poland's Europolgaz SA, part owner of a 4,000 kilometre long natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, is worth 1.35 billion crowns.

Credit Agricole cannot confirm LTCM bailout role:

French Credit Agricole said it could not confirm reports it had agreed to contribute $100 million to a $3.5-billion bailout of troubled US hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM). "We are not confirming this agreement of $100 million," a Credit Agricole spokeswoman said in response to a query from Reuters. Market sources said in New york overnight that 15 US and other banks had agreed to put $3.5 billion into LCTM and that, inFrance, this included $100 million each from Credit Agricole and Paribas and $125 million from Societe Generale.

Nikon to fall deep in red in 98-99:

Japan's Nikon Corp warned on Friday that it would fall deep in the red this business year, hit by stagnant global investment in semiconductor plants and equipment. The leading maker of steppers that map out circuits on silicon wafers used to make semiconductors said it would likely post a group net loss of 12 billion yen ($88.8 million) for the year through next March, sharply revising down its earlier group net profit estimate of one billion yen.

Glaxo drops 6 % after Goldman downgrade:

Shares in Glaxo Wellcome Plc fell as much as six per cent in early Friday trading after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock. Goldman took Glaxo off its recommended list and set it at "market performer". Goldman analyst John Murphy said, "Glaxo is a quality stock but it is up with valuations and we would not recommend putting fresh funds in at theselevels."