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Honda Motor’s China car sales plunged 54% in October from a year earlier, with the pace of decline accelerating from the previous month as Japanese automakers suffer the backlash from a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo. Smaller rival Nissan Motor also reported a steepening slump in its China sales. The hit taken by Japanese firms in the world's biggest auto market has been a boon for some Asian and European rivals, with Hyundai reporting that it sold more cars in China in October than Honda and Toyota could muster between them. Honda, which earlier this week cut its full-year earnings forecast by a fifth, has warned it could be February before business returns to normal in its second-largest market, where consumers are turning to German, Korean and US cars instead.

Gazprom net drops 50% on gas price discounts

OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural gas producer, said second-quarter profit fell 50%, beating estimates, as the state-run company gave price discounts to European clients and the ruble weakened. Net income declined to 150.8 billion rubles ($4.8 billion) from 303.7 billion rubles a year earlier, the Moscow-based company said in financial statements on its website today. That was higher than an average estimate of 140.3 billion rubles from nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue slid 2.4% to 1.01 trillion rubles. “The ongoing negative trend in the company’s financial performance despite the improving macro environment looks alarming to us,” VTB Capital said yesterday in a research note.

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