| * China brokers boost prop trading profits * South Korea woes hold back StanChart * Key reform minister exits Myanmar investment body * Telefónica's domestic revenues eclipsed by sales in Brazil * Observers find flaws in Malaysia poll * China trade growth accelerates in April * Mexico's auto boom * Dangote Secures $4.25 Billion for Nigeria Oil Refinery Markets: mixed China brokers boost prop trading profits
Chinese securities brokers are boosting the profits they make from proprietary trading and other investment activities even as these are being outlawed among western banks following the financial crisis.
http://on.ft.com/18WBgu4 South Korea woes hold back StanChart
Signs emerged on Wednesday that Standard Chartered's unbroken decade-long record of annual profit growth may be running out of steam, as the bank revealed that operating profits in the first three months of the year fell "slightly".
http://on.ft.com/12TVAsF Key reform minister exits Myanmar investment body
The abrupt exit of one of Myanmar's leading reformist ministers from the helm of the government's powerful investment commission has raised fresh questions about President Thein Sein's ambitious reform agenda and unsettled investors.
http://on.ft.com/10oTntr Telefónica's domestic revenues eclipsed by sales in Brazil
Telefónica reported a drop in first-quarter revenues after sharp declines in key European markets cancelled out a better performance in the group's Latin American operations.
http://on.ft.com/10pczm7 Observers find flaws in Malaysia poll
Malaysia's general election, which the incumbent ruling coalition won after the toughest fight in the country's history, was "partially free and not fair", a study part-funded by the British and Canadian governments found on Wednesday.
http://on.ft.com/10oWHVw China trade growth accelerates in April
Chinese export and import growth accelerated in April, an apparent indication of strength in the economy but one that also raises questions about the quality of the data.
http://on.ft.com/YEh4hB Mexico's auto boom
The newest figures from the Mexican auto industry association, AMIA, point to continued powerful growth not only from the car makers themselves but from associated industries.
http://on.ft.com/18srXoq Dangote Secures $4.25 Billion for Nigeria Oil Refinery
Aliko Dangote, Africa's wealthiest man, says he has negotiated loans of $4.25 billion from banks to build a refinery to help the continent's largest crude oil producer reduce gasoline imports.
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