BHP Billiton's shares closed almost four percent lower in Australia Wednesday, as investors fled over the lack of a stock buyback and the global mining giant's demerger plans.

The slump came as global credit agencies affirmed their ratings for the world's biggest miner and maintained a stable outlook.

The heads of Britain's largest companies earned 131 times as much as their average employee last year, a study said Monday, exposing the growing pay gap between bosses and workers.

The wage divide has more than doubled since 1998, when the average chief executive of firms in the FTSE 100 earned 47 times as much as staff, the report found.

Britain's 12-month inflation slid to 1.6 percent in July from 1.9 percent in June, official data showed on Tuesday, easing pressure on the Bank of England to raise rates.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation measure headed back towards May's figure of 1.5 percent, which at the time was the lowest level for four and a half year years.

The dollar held steady in Asia on Tuesday as concerns over a Ukrainian clash with Russia eased, while investors looked to a speech by the US Federal Reserve chief this week.

In afternoon Tokyo trade, the greenback rose to 102.62 yen, from 102.57 yen in New York and 102.32 yen in Tokyo earlier Monday.

The yen ticked up in Asia Monday as investors nervously watched the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis, while looking to a speech by the U.S. Federal Reserve chief later this week.

In Tokyo afternoon trading, the dollar slipped to 102.32 yen from 102.34 yen in New York Friday.

Increasing workers' earning power and offering Latino-owned companies easier access to funding that can be used for growth and expansion can help improve the social and economic status of Latinos in the U.S. and throughout Latin America, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim told a group of religious and community leaders.

During a speech Sunday at the annual conference of the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders, Slim spoke for more than an hour on how to better the plight of Latino workers and Latino-owned businesses.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China dropped by more than a sixth year-on-year to a two-year low in July, the government said Monday, but denied any link to Beijing's multiple probes into foreign companies.

FDI -- which excludes investment in financial sectors -- fell 16.95 percent in the month to $7.81 billion, the commerce ministry said, its lowest since July 2012, when it was $7.579 billion.

Thailand dodged recession as its economy grew 0.9 percent in the second quarter, data showed Monday, after the military ended months of political deadlock with a coup and promised to unshackle state spending.

Between April and June the economy grew 0.9 percent after shrinking a revised 1.9 percent in the first quarter, the National Economic and Social Development Board reported.

A red 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta, said to be one of only a handful, was snapped up for $38.1 million in California, becoming the most expensive car ever sold at auction.

The previous record was held by a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 model bought in Britain last year for $30 million.

News that Ukraine had attacked a Russian military convoy that entered its territory sent investors fleeing to the safe-haven yen and Swiss franc on Friday, while the dollar slipped.

The foreign-exchange market reacted in a relatively muted fashion to the spike in geopolitical tensions between the neighboring countries, which had weighed on US and European equity markets and sent oil prices surging higher.