Friday morning's business news

Jun 27 2008 By Andrew Mernin

Oil price eases slightly; National Express in the money; New boss for BAE

Oil prices eased slightly today after surging yesterday to a new record high of more than 140 US dollars a barrel.

The cost of crude hit 140.39 dollars in commodity trading in New York yesterday following comments from the President of production cartel Opec that prices could rise to 170 dollars this summer.

But oil slipped around one dollar to 139.42 dollars in early electronic trading today.

Transport group National Express says it is ``confident“ of combating rocketing fuel bills with pricing promotions and cost savings.

The rail, bus and coach operator, which runs the East Coast Main Line through the North East, said it was planning to use ``innovative pricing mechanisms“ to help offset soaring oil prices.

National Express is expecting ``significant“ year-on-year earnings growth for the half-year and full year results, adding that it hoped to benefit from the switch to public transport amid sky-high petrol prices.

Defence giant BAE Systems has named chief operating officer Ian King as its next chief executive.

Mr King, 52, will replace Mike Turner in the top job from the beginning of September.

The announcement brings to an end the uncertainty over who would next head up the world’s third largest defence company.

Mr Turner’s retirement after more than 40 years service was announced last October.

The FTSE-100 index at 9:15am was down 11.5 at 5506.7.

The pound at 9am was 1.9851 dollars compared to 1.9875 dollars at the previous close.

The euro at 9am was 0.7931 pounds compared to 0.7918 pounds at the previous close.