(Reuters) - Hana Financial (086790.KS) agreed to buy 51 percent of Korea Exchange Bank (004940.KS) for $4.1 billion in South Korea's biggest banking deal, trumping rival suitor Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX). The deal, which comes a day before South Korea ends the first round of a $6 billion-plus stake auction for Woori Finance Holdings (053000.KS), will make Hana the nation's third-largest lender by assets, giving it more muscle to compete in the saturated Korean banking sector.

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(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) is cutting its debt by $1.9 billion in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet and get itself rated investment grade again. In Ford's tender offer to reduce its automotive operations debt, holders of some $2.55 billion of senior convertible notes due in 2016 and 2036 accepted cash and company stock for debt.

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(Reuters) - BP Capital, the investment management firm led by billionaire energy investor T. Boone Pickens, has purchased shares of oil company BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) for the first time in nearly six years and dropped its holdings in offshore oil driller Transocean Ltd (RIGN.VX) (RIG.N), according to a quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Dallas, Texas-based BP Capital purchased $19.8 million worth of American depository receipts in BP sometime during the third quarter, after the stock price hit 21-month lows at the end of June. The last time the firm held shares in BP was in the fourth quarter of 2004, SEC filings show.

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(Reuters) - Stocks advanced on Wednesday as consumer and jobless claims data reinforced the view the economic recovery is gaining steam. The data bodes well for the holiday shopping season, which traditionally kicks off on Black Friday, the day after Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday, analysts said. The upbeat economic indicators boosted stocks after two days of losses.

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(Reuters) - Ireland is set to take a majority stake in top lender Bank of Ireland (BKIR.I) as part of a massive international bailout that could leave the state with effective control of the country's top three banks. The state's ownership of Bank of Ireland could rise to near 80 percent from 36 percent now under the bailout, put at up to 85 billion euros ($114 billion), and Allied Irish Banks (ALBK.I) could join Anglo Irish Bank in being fully nationalized.

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(Reuters) - BP (BP.L) made a series of decisions while drilling its doomed Macondo well that saved time but added risks prior to its massive Gulf spill, according to a White House oil spill commission document leaked by a media outlet. The chart compiled by the commission's investigative team outlines 11 unnecessary actions taken by BP and its partners in the lead-up to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

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(Reuters) - Secretly recorded conversations may be used as evidence in the criminal trial of Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam on insider trading charges, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The ruling is a big victory for U.S. prosecutors. The wiretaps are considered key evidence that the government will use in trying to convince a jury that Rajaratnam engaged in a massive insider trading scheme.

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(Reuters) - The massive stimulus package, widely viewed by voters to be ineffective, put 1.4 million to 3.6 million people to work between July and September, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also boosted national output by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent during that period, CBO said in its latest estimate.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks extended gains on Wednesday after a report showed U.S. consumer sentiment rose to its highest level since June. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 110.20 points, or 1.00 percent, at 11,146.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 12.15 points, or 1.03 percent, at 1,192.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC jumped 33.96 points, or 1.36 percent, at 2,528.91.

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(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday arrested an employee of an "expert networking firm" on charges that he promoted the firm's services by arranging for corporate executives to leak inside information to hedge funds. According to a complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors claimed that Don Ching Trang Chu, also known as Don Chu, who worked at California-based Primary Global Research, had arranged for hedge funds to get tips on companies including Atheros Communications Inc, Broadcom Corp and Sierra Wireless Inc.

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