| The Markets Global stock markets made further modest gains as hopes grew that central banks in the US, China and Europe would ease monetary policy to kick-start economic growth. With US manufacturing unexpectedly shrinking in June, export growth rapidly slowing in China and Europe in stagnation, reducing interest rates and increasing money supply are options becoming increasingly viable for these institutions by the day. In the UK, construction sector activity was shown to drop at its fastest rate in two and a half years as business conditions deteriorated sharply. The purchasing managers' index for construction tumbled from to 48.4 from 54.4 a month earlier, indicated the sector is now contracting. The figure further strengthens the belief that the Bank of England will announce a long list of initiatives to increase bank lending come the Monetary Policy Committee meeting this Thursday, which will likely include a boost to quantitative easing and maybe even a quarter point reduction in interest rates to 0.25%. At the London close the Dow Jones was up by 69.13 points at 12,940.52 and the Nasdaq was up by 18.10 points at 2,643.13.
In London the FTSE 100 rose by 47.31 points to 5,687.95; the FTSE 250 finished 85.80 points ahead at 11,179.27; the FTSE All-Share gained 24.27 points to 2,951.39; and the FTSE AIM Index climbed by 12.92 points to 692.35. 
Broker Notes The latest in a number of bearish notes from Daniel Stewart rated Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) as a "sell", with a 26p target price. Despite noting that progress has been made under the leadership of Antonio Horta-Osorio, the broker believes that a full recovery and restoration of the dividend is still a long way off. Daniel Stewart expects revenues to fall further as the bank continues its de-leveraging strategy, adding that the loan book is also likely to contract due to rising levels of competition. Shares in Lloyds advanced by 0.33p to 31.81p. Panmure Gordon lowered its stance on WM Morrison (MRW) from "hold" to "sell" with a reduced target price of 240p, from 260p. The broker raised concerns over the supermarket chain's strategy of moving into smaller store formats and providing "upmarket" products, noting that diversification moves often fail in food retail. Panmure added that the company's like-for-like sales fell 1% in the 13 weeks ended 29th April, leading the broker to downgrade full year sales growth from 1.7% to 1%. The shares grew by 3.6p to 270.6p. 
Singer Capital reiterated its "buy" recommendation for Sinclair IS Pharma (SPH) with a target price of 48p. The company has returned the EU rights for its oral mucositis spray Episil, which the broker noted accounted for just 1.5% of sales. As a result, Singer believes the firm will now be able to focus on its core business in mainland Europe of dermatology and woundcare. On the broker's earnings forecasts, the shares trade on a prospective multiple of 20.6 times for the 2012 financial year, falling to 12.4 times in 2013. Shares in Sinclair IS Pharma inched up by 0.125p to 26.75p. Canaccord Genuity retained its "buy" rating for Tangent Communications (TNG) with a 10p target price. With the firm reporting that its printed.com subsidiary has enjoyed record customer number and revenues, the broker maintained its full year pre-tax profit target of 1.7 million pounds. Canaccord added that the firm remains well financed, with net cash standing at around 1.2 million pounds, and believes that the appointment of Michael Green, who holds a 30% stake in the business, as its chairman demonstrates its desire to accelerate growth. The shares were unchanged at 7.375p. Blue-Chips Chief executive of Barclays (BARC) Bob Diamond has buckled under the pressure and announced his resignation, with immediate effect. Chairman Marcus Agius, who said he would step down on Monday has been reinstated on a full time basis while the bank looks for a new chief executive. However, broker Daniel Stewart warned that this could be a difficult task due to the limited availability of senior banking managers. As a result, the broker believes Barclays may miss its full year targets. The shares slipped by 0.8p to 167.6p. 
Rexam (REX) has announced the sale of its personal care businesses, consisting of: cosmetics, toiletries and household care, and high barrier food packaging, for a total consideration of 709 million dollars (452 million pounds). The division reported an underlying operating profit of 38 million pounds in the 2011 financial year, on revenues of 502 million pounds. The consumer packaging company added that, following the completion of the disposal, it would return around 370 million pounds to shareholders. Rexam shares climbed by 9.6p to 433.2p. Mid-Caps Shares in Talvivaara Mining (TALV) crashed by 17.9p to 152.1p after it reported a 180 tonne fall in nickel production to 3,194 tonnes, quarter-on-quarter, due to spring flooding at its Sotkamo mine in Finland. As a result, the firm no longer believes it will be able to meet its previous production target of between 25,000 and 30,000 tonnes in the 2012 financial year. To make matters worse, the base metals miner added that second quarter results would be impacted by weak nickel prices in the range of between 16,000 and 17,000 dollars (10,190 and 10,827 pounds) per tonne. 
London & Stamford Property (LSP) has agreed to buy an office building in Marlow for 50.15 million pounds, offering a net initial yield of 8.9%. The property contains 231,016 square feet of floor space and includes a restaurant that can seat 500 and a car park with 854 spaces. Together with the recent acquisitions of Moore House in Chelsea and another office building in Leatherhead, the property developer has invested some 260 million pounds in new projects in the last three weeks. The shares edged down by 0.3p to 110p. Housebuilder Persimmon (PSN) completed 4,712 new homes in the six months ended 30th June 2012, 273 more than in 2011's comparable period, with average sale prices 7% higher at 171,400 pounds. As a result, the firm achieved a 13% increase in revenues to 805 million pounds. The group opened 65 new sites in the first half and noted plans of opening a further 60 during the second half of the year. Persimmon shares declined by 15p to 620p. Small Caps, AIM and PLUS Condor Gold (CNR) released further bullish drilling results for its La India project in Nicaragua, unveiling large-scale gold interceptions across the La India-California vein trend. Highlights of the latest drilling programme included 34.79g/t gold across a 12.2 metres interval at a depth of 173 metres. Meanwhile, a 28 metre interval of 1.63g/t at a depth of 49 metres further demonstrates near surface open pit potential. Condor Gold shares surged 20.5p to 77.5p. The markets were excited by Toumaz's (TMZ) appointment of Chris Batterham as a non-executive director of the wireless communications technology firm, with its shares climbing by 1p to 9.75p. "Chris has considerable financial and operational experience" the firm noted, and rightly so, the new board member having worked for a number of relevant companies, having acted as finance director of Unipalm for more than five years, the first internet company to IPO and being chief financial offer of Searchspace. "We are delighted that someone of Chris' calibre has agreed to join us at this exciting time in our development", Toumaz added. Oxford Catalysts Group (OCG) has been selected by Solena Duels Corporation to supply its Fischer-Tropsch technology to the GreenSky London waste-biomass to jet fuel project. GreenSky London, whose leading partner is British Airways, has been established to create Europe's first commercial scale sustainable jet fuel facility to part power BA's fleet by 2015. In addition, Solena and Oxford Catalysts have entered into an understanding which may also see the provision of Fischer-Tropsch units for GreenSky California, Rome and Stockholm. The group's shares climbed 7p to 64.5p. 
Diversified engineering firm 600 Group (SIXH) has made the decision to sell off a number of assets, including its entire South African operations, in a bid to reduce indebtedness of the group. 600 SA is recognised as a non-core asset to the company, which alongside the fact that it has experienced difficulties repatriating net operating income to the parent company, has persuaded the group to off-load it. 600 Group will realise cash of 1.86 million pounds for the sale and will also receive 1.2 million pounds from the disposal of a property in Leicestershire. The group concluded by admitting that results for the year to March 2012 would be materially below market expectations, which explains why the shares tumbled by 6p to 14.5p. Music Festivals (MFP) admitted that the highly-competitive festival market continues to be significantly impacted by the weak economies of the UK and Spain, hurting ticket sales for its Hop Farm and Benicassim festivals. As a result the directors believe that the firm's financial results for the year to December 2012 will be significantly lower than market expectations. Director Vince Power had agreed to provide a loan of 750,000 pounds to shore up the firm's cash balance for the time being, with the company commenting its commitment to creating cost savings remains ongoing. The shares dropped by 5.5p to 24p. AdEPT Telecom (ADT) delivered its ninth consecutive year of bottom line growth as the telecommunication service provider posted on 1% increase in EBITDA to 3.65 million pounds for the twelve months to March. This was despite revenue decreasing by 7.7% to 21.9 million pounds driven by the impact of regulation on reducing mobile call rates, although the firm noted it is working hard to reduce its reliance on this revenue stream. Meanwhile AdEPT reduced its net debt position to by 2.1 million pounds to 5.3 million pounds, noting that this supported its new progressive dividend policy, which started with a maiden full year dividend paid to shareholders in April 2012 of 0.5p, offering a 2% yield. AdEPT shares climbed 2.5p to 52p. | 
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