Cordea Savills has launched a flagship open-ended UK commercial property fund with a target size of £1bn.

Gartmore's Neil Rogan believes 2010 will see a sharp recovery in corporate profitability with valuations increasing by up to 15%.

Barings' William Fong believes the interest rates in China will continue to rise but concerns of an asset bubble have been overdone.

Aegon Asset Management has bolstered its European equity team with the appointment of Pauline McPherson as a senior investment manager.

Gartmore plans to launch a pan-European long/short fund for John Bennett.

HSBC has launched sterling retail and institutional share classes on its Ucits AdvantEdge fund of hedge funds.

Early gains among financials and miners helped boost the FTSE up 27.43 points (0.50%) to 5482.80 in early trading.

Morningstar has confirmed it will make no change to its ratings for the BlackRock funds formerly managed by Graham Birch following his decision not to return to the company.

Baring Asset Management has appointed Colin Ng to its Asia Pacific investment team in the new position of head of Asian equities.

The Mansion Group has launched a specialist Guernsey-based Student Accommodation fund.