* HSBC has launched a range of low-rate fixed mortgages which include a five-year fixed rate at 4.29 per cent, with £99 fee, and a seven-year fix at 4.69 per cent, with a £999 fee, in a sale ending February 6.

The loans were introduced as demand for fixed-rate mortgages doubled, from 17 per cent to 35 per cent of all new home-loan applications across the bank.

The bank’s fixed and feefree tracker offers have attracted the highest level of mortgage inquiries for three years.

* Small investors are still piling into retail shares despite the recent economic gloom, says execution-only broker TD Waterhouse.

Tesco and Marks & Spencer made up nearly a fifth of trades in this week’s top-ten buys, but Lloyds Banking Group actually topped the list followed by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and oil giant BP in number three, before M&S and Tesco bagged slots four and five.

The top four “sells” were RBS, Vodafone, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays.

* Hard-up savers are promised 4.15 per cent gross (from 3.26 per cent net for the monthly income option or 3.22 per cent annual income) by the Yorkshire BS three-year fixed-rate bond.

Minimum opening balance for the bond, which matures in February 2014, is £1,000.

For more details, call 08451-200-100 or go to ybs.co.uk