U.S. drugs giant Pfizer on Monday confirmed its interest over forming a multi-billion-dollar merger with British rival AstraZeneca, adding that an informal approach made in January had been rebuffed.

"Pfizer Inc. confirms that it previously submitted a preliminary, non-binding indication of interest to the board of directors of AstraZeneca in January 2014 regarding a possible merger transaction," said a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange one week after media reports regarding a potential tie-up.

The International Monetary Fund said Monday Hong Kong property prices are set to see adjustments following years of boom. 

The city's housing market has become one of the most expensive in the world -- prices have more than doubled since 2008 -- due to an influx of capital from the mainland and record low interest rates thanks to U.S. quantitative easing.

Oxfam on Monday accused Australia's big four banks of financing companies the charity said were linked to illegal logging, forced evictions and child labor.

A report by the aid group highlighted cases from Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Indonesia and Brazil in which Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank or ANZ directly or indirectly funded illegal "land grabs".

The dollar and euro stayed virtually unchanged Friday as the boiling Ukraine crisis kept traders cautious going into the weekend.

But the Japanese yen inched higher, with eyes looking to policy meetings next week in both the Bank of Japan and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

China's Foreign Minister ended a Latin American tour Friday in Brazil, stressing Beijing's goal of investing in the region as he prepared the way for a July visit by President Xi Jinping.

"There is a complementary economic relationship between China and Latin America and the Caribbean," said Wang Yi.

Nokia says it has completed the 5.44 billion-euro ($7.5 billion) sale of its troubled cellphone and services division to Microsoft, ending a chapter in the former world leading cellphone maker's history that began with paper making in 1865.

The Friday closure of the deal, which includes a license to a portfolio of Nokia patents to Microsoft Corp., follows delays in global regulatory approvals and ends the production of mobile phones by the Finnish company, which had led the field for more than a decade, peaking with a 40-percent global market share in 2008.

Rating agency Standard and Poor's on Friday maintained its rating for France at "AA" with a stable outlook, welcoming a raft of new reforms but warning that targets were unduly optimistic.

"In our view, the French government has shifted toward policies to reduce labor costs and corporate taxation in order to improve the economy's competitiveness," S&P said in a statement.

Iran announced petrol price hikes as high as 75 percent to take immediate effect Friday, in a long-awaited attempt to regulate energy prices in the country's flatlining, sanctions-hit economy.

The increases, which took effect at midnight, are part of the second phase of government plans to remove all energy subsidies. The cost of electricity and domestic gas went up by 25 percent earlier this year as part of the same programme.

Oil prices rose in Asian trade Friday after Russia ordered new military exercises on the border with Ukraine in response to Kiev launching a deadly assault against pro-Kremlin rebels occupying a flashpoint town.

U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate for June delivery, was up two cents at $101.96 a barrel in mid-morning trade and Brent North Sea crude for June also climbed two cents to $110.35.

Eight months after taking office, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has suffered his first major political defeat, with the public overwhelmingly brushing aside appeals to forgo direct government aid.

The 455,000-rial ($14, 10-euro) monthly handout scheme, initiated in December 2010 by Rouhani's predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is part of broader economic reforms aimed at overhauling the country's massive subsidy system.