Half of the UK’s top flight FTSE 100 companies are to be hit by new rules designed to prevent a repeat of the stock market scandals at companies like ENRC and Bumi, where controlling shareholders rode roughshod over ordinary investors. The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has outlined a series of drastic new measures designed to protect minority investors by giving them a greater voice. The watchdog is aiming to give shareholders in large UK-listed companies additional voting rights and greater influence in key decisions, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The owner of the Scottish petrochemical plant in Grangemouth, which narrowly avoided closure last month, has warned that developing Britain’s shale gas reserves is critical to the chemical industry’s survival. Tom Crotty, director of Ineos, said that chemical plants are being crippled by rising energy costs, which are three times higher than those faced by their rivals in the US and Middle East, The Times wrote.

The risk of power shortages this winter has been underestimated by ministers and the National Grid, with factory shutdowns and “politically unacceptable” price spikes more likely than had been feared, energy giant SSE has warned. National Grid last month said that in a cold winter the UK’s electricity “margin” – the safety buffer between peak demand and supply – would fall to just 5%, the lowest since 2007, as old power stations are switched off. But Keith MacLean, SSE’s director of policy and research, warned: “We think that could easily flip to minus 5%”, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Apple’s two new iPhones have proved popular in China, enabling the US company to shoulder past Xiaomi in the market share rankings for the three months ended in September. But Apple and everyone else are still miles behind the clear market leader – Samsung, which now has a fifth of China’s smartphone market, up from 14% in the third quarter of last year. According to new data from market researcher Canalys, Apple increased its sales 32% year on year and is now fifth by market share, the Financial Times explained.

Board members at the Bank of Japan have expressed fears that wages are not keeping pace with higher consumer prices, as the world’s third-largest economy tries to haul itself out of more than a decade of deflation. Minutes of the October 3rd-4th meeting published on Wednesday showed that members of the policy board agreed it was important that improvements in income keep supporting consumption, which was the main driver of Japan’s strong growth in the first half of 2013, the Financial Times said.

Defence giant BAE Systems is poised to slash more than 1,000 jobs at two shipyards on the River Clyde in Glasgow and another in Portsmouth. According to reports, BAE will announce the cuts as early as tomorrow. The future of the yards has been in question for months amid fears there will be no new work once two aircraft carriers are completed, The Daily Mail posted.