Italian assets are being hit by a brisk sell-off, with the growing prospect of a second general election within months leaving Milan stocks looking distinctly out of fashion with investors and the country’s bond yields rising, the Financial Times reported. Italy’s main stocks benchmark, the FTSE Mib, is down 2.2 per cent, a significantly sharper fall than the 0.2 per cent slip on the Europe-wide Stoxx 600. Financial stocks are taking the biggest toll on the Milan index. UniCredit is down by more than 3 per cent, with Intesa Sanpaolo weaker by almost 2 per cent.

Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya lost a U.K. lawsuit filed by Indian banks seeking to collect more than 1.15 billion pounds ($1.55 billion) amid allegations that he committed massive fraud. Judge Andrew Henshaw in London Tuesday said the lenders, including IDBI Bank Ltd., can enforce an Indian court ruling that relates to allegations that Mallya willfully defaulted on about $1.4 billion in debt for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, Bloomberg News reported. Henshaw also refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya’s assets. The 62-year-old is fighting numerous lawsuits in the U.K.

Restaurant chain Côte is reportedly looking into closing branches in a move to shore up its finances, the Financial Times reported. Sky News reported that Côte, which is owned by private equity group BC Partners, is planning to close a number of branches that trade under the Limeyard and Jackson & Rye brands. However, the closures are unlikely to come as part of a company voluntary agreement, a deal with creditors that a string of distressed high street retailers have already resorted to this year — including Jamie’s Italian and burger chain Byron — in order to avoid insolvency.

In the first year of his presidency, Emmanuel Macron has pushed business-friendly labor laws through Parliament, made it easier for companies to hire and fire, cut the wealth tax and decentralized collective bargaining, the International New York Times reported. Through it all, France’s most militant unions have resisted. His changes, which set out to reshape the way France’s economy and society work, are now facing increasing pushback from labor groups.

Shopping centre landlords Hammerson and Intu are bracing for negotiations with House of Fraser over tenancies and rent reductions after the struggling retailer unveiled restructuring plans that involve store closures, the Financial Times reported. House of Fraser owner Nanjing Xinjiekou, which has not yet disclosed which stores will be affected, said on Wednesday it would look to reach a deal with landlords to reduce its rental bill. Hammerson and Intu are among those landlords that have most exposure to the group.

Brexit and a string of bankruptcies are driving up the cost of UK companies protecting against their customers going out of business, the head of the world’s largest credit insurer has said. Trade credit insurance protects companies against the risk that their customers go bust before paying up for goods or services, the Financial Times reported. More than £340bn of UK trade is being covered by trade credit policies, according to the Association of British Insurers.

Greece’s four biggest banks would take a €15.5bn hit to their average capital in a future economic downturn, according to the results of the European Central Bank’s stress test of the country’s main lenders. The ECB’s health check of the Greek banking system is designed to determine if any of the banks need extra equity before the country enters talks on leaving its eight-year bailout programme. Senior Greek officials said the outcome of the exercise meant there was “no immediate need for a capital increase by any bank”.

BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA missed out on the trading gains that boosted earnings at some of their U.S. and European rivals in the first quarter, sending their shares tumbling, Bloomberg News reported. Trading income at BNP Paribas, the largest French lender, fell 15 percent as a drop in sales from fixed-income, currencies and commodities outweighed a gain in equities, the Paris-based bank said Friday. At Societe Generale, stock and bond trading both dropped.

British authorities are promising to continue their investigation of Cambridge Analytica, the campaign consultant at the center of the Facebook privacy scandal, even though the company is going out of business, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Cambridge Analytica announced Wednesday that it plans to file for bankruptcy in Britain and the U.S., saying negative publicity surrounding allegations that it improperly harvested data from millions of Facebook users drove potential clients away. The U.K.

Euro zone economic growth will slow this year and next from a peak expansion in 2017, the European Commission forecast on Thursday, underlining the need to quickly implement euro zone reforms while the expansion is still strong, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The Commission forecast that economic growth in the 19 countries sharing the euro would slow down to 2.0 percent next year from 2.3 percent expected this year after it peaked at 2.4 percent in 2017.