| The Markets The Confederation of British Industry said that it expects Britain's GDP to contract by 0.3% in 2012, a significant downgrade on the previous forecast for growth of 0.6%. The lobbying organisation attributed this to falling commodity prices and retailers offering large discounts on products. Additionally, it noted that weakness in the Eurozone and US has had a detrimental effect on UK exports. Across the pond, US initial jobless claims came in at 374,000 for August, according to figures from the Labor Department, exceeding expectations of 370,000. At the London close the Dow Jones was down by 99.01 points at 13,008.47 and the Nasdaq was down by 24.92 points at 2,759.08. In London the FTSE 100 fell by 24.08 points to 5,719.45; the FTSE 250 finished 61.78 points behind at 11,325.91; the FTSE All-Share lost 12.84 points to 2,973.11; and the FTSE AIM Index declined by 4.86 points to 673.27. 
Broker Notes Seymour Pierce reiterated its "buy" recommendation for Medusa Mining (MML) with a target price of 416p. The mining group fell 11% short of the broker's full year earnings forecast, although Seymour Pierce attributed this to pending payments on year end gold sales. The broker expects the firm to produce between 100 and 120 thousand ounces of gold in the new financial year, with growth to be driven by the completion of the Saga shaft in December. On the broker's forecast's the shares trade on a prospective earnings multiple of 10 times for the 2013 financial year. The shares gained 7p to 322p.  Shore Capital maintained its "buy" rating for 888 Holdings (888) following an in-line set of interim results and the reinstallation of an interim dividend at 2.5 cents (1.6p). The broker said that the online gambling company is establishing a strong position in regulated markets, such as Spain, France and the UK, and expects revenues from these markets to grow by 60% by the year end. Shore added that the firm is making progress in penetrating the US market, having been awarded a licence in Nevada, and believes that investors have fairly valued the company's growth potential in the country. Shares in 888 slipped by 0.5p to 87p. Panmure Gordon reiterated its "buy" recommendation for WANdisco (WAND) with an increased target price of 290p, from 261p. The broker pointed to the software developer's wide range of patent-pending technology and noted that it has a number of blue-chip clients such as Hewlett-Packard and Wal-Mart. Panmure added that the group is continuing to build its order book, with 1.84 million dollars (1.16 million pounds) worth of orders won in its second quarter, including its first sale in China, to telecommunications equipment company Huawei. The shares grew by 4p to 275p. Blue-Chips Despite difficult trading conditions, Admiral Group (ADM) increased first half pre-tax profits by 7% year-on-year to 171.8 million pounds, on revenue growth of 6% to 1.17 billion pounds. The car insurance provider noted that as of 1st April 2012 it no longer earned revenues from the sale of legal protection policies and added that from the start of the second half of the financial year wit will begin to underwrite the majority of its personal injury insurance, breakdown cover and car hire cover products within the group, whereas they had previously been outsourced. In light of the continued growth, the firm increased its interim dividend by 15% to 45.1p per share. Admiral shares declined by 34p to 1,162p. 
Advertising giant WPP (WPP) noted a slowdown in growth during the three months ended 30th June, quarter-on-quarter, leading it to cut its full year growth forecasts from 4% to 3.5%. First half revenues revenues in North America rose by 6.2% to 1.7 billion pounds, with growth slipping in the second quarter to 5.5%, while second quarter revenues in Mainland Western Europe fell 3% to 624 million pounds. Separately, the firm announced that it will move its headquarters back to the UK, having moved to Ireland in 2008, after the government said it will no longer tax foreign subsidiaries. The shares lost 13p to 818.5p. Evraz (EVR) became the latest company to be hit by falling commodity prices, with the firm reporting a loss of 50 million dollars (31.5 million pounds) for the six months ended 30th June, compared to a profit of 263 million dollars (165.9 million pounds) in the prior year's comparable period. The Russian steel producer attempted to reassure investors by saying that it is largely unaffected by the economic crisis in Europe, as the region accounted for under 9.7% of total revenues, and it also ramped up the interim dividend by 64% to 11 cents (6.9p). Evraz shares slid by 4.5p to 226.9p. Mid-Caps Cape (CIU) reported a 65.4% fall in pre-tax profits to 9.9 million pounds for the first half ended 30th June as it suffered from previously noted operational difficulties at the Arzew project in Algeria and weakening margins in Australia. However, investors were reassured to hear that the industrial engineering firm was on track to meet revised full year targets. The firm added that it had a strong order book of 920 million pounds, as at 30th June 2012, up from 830 million pounds at the same time last year. The shares leapt by 37.4p to 230p. 
Shares in Hays (HAS) tumbled by 6.75p to 69.9p after it announced a 57% cut to its full year dividend, to 2.5p, as it saw its UK business swing to an operation loss of 6.5 million pounds for the year ended 30th June, compared to an operating profit of 3.6 million pounds in 2011. The recruitment agency was heavily affected by a decline in demand from the financial services sector and was forced to undertake a significant cost cutting programme to compensate, with 15 net closures bringing the total number of offices to 110. Meanwhile, the group performed well internationally with net fees from Asia Pacific growing 15%. Construction company Kentz Corporation (KENZ) achieved pre-tax profits of 51.2 million dollars (32.3 million pounds) for the six months ended 30th June, up 35.8% on 2011's comparable period, on revenue growth of 9.4% to 703.7 million dollars (444.7 million pounds). The firm enjoyed particularly strong growth in Canada and Australia, driven by demand in the liquid natural gas sector, which compensated for declining revenues in the Middle East and Africa. The shares climbed by 19p to 400p. Small Caps, AIM and PLUS As we suggested back in early July, JJB Sports (JJB) looks to be the next high street retailer to bite the dust as it announced that it is looking for potential buyers. The sporting goods retailer was burdened with net bank debt of 16.5 million pounds as at 28th August 2012 and has 18.75 million pounds of convertible loan notes outstanding. As a result, the firm warned that any potential bid would probably attribute no value to the ordinary shares. The shares crashed by 2.03p to 0.34p. Shares in Lagan Capital (LGN) collapsed by 3.875p to 1.625p upon readmission to trading on AIM, having been suspended since December 2011 due to accounting problems at the Polish subsidiary of Evolving Outsourcing, in which the group had a significant investment. During its suspension, the company raised 690,741 pounds through an equity placing at 1p per share of which 560,000 has been invested in five listed mining companies, including Rio Tinto (RIO) and Vedanta Resources (VED). Continental Coal (COOL) reported that the development of its Penumbra Mine declines are two-thirds completed, and first production is scheduled for 30th October 2012. The miner noted that the development remains on budget and hopes to ramp up production to to 750,000 tonnes per annum by 30th June 2013. Separately, the firm announced that total production in July from its two thermal coal mines was 175,783 tonnes, with total sales of 142,135 tonnes. The shares were unchanged at 3.375p. 
North River Resources (NRRP) announced positive results from samples taken at its at its 100% owned Namib Lead-Zinc project in Namibia. The samples included zinc grade of 20%, 17.7% and 18.9%, leading it to believe that prior mining at the site, from 1965-1992, was not halted due to exhaustion of minerals. The firm added that it is awaiting results from an airborne geophysical survey which it will use to plan an exploration campaign in the surrounding area. North River shares swelled by 0.1p to 0.95p. PLUS-quoted Webb Capital (WCAP) reported a loss of 270,504 pounds for the six months ended 30th June, an improvement on 2011's comparable period loss of 276,969 pounds, although revenues tumbled by 55.5% to 58,237 pounds. During the period the financial services company sold its Webb Capital Advisory business to fellow PLUS-listed CarbonDesk Group (CO2P) and acquired the investment mandates of three funds from Rivington Street Holdings* (RIVP). Shares in Webb stayed flat at 7.5p. San Leon Energy's (SLE) Lelechow-SL1 well in Poland struck oil, having dug to a depth of 1,167 metres. The group will now begin drilling the Czaslaw-SL1 well and plans to return to the site in a few weeks to resume testing. The firm will install a submersible electrical pump in order to maximise flow rates during production. The shares gained 0.25p to 12.25p. * Rivington Street Holdings is the ultimate owner of UK-Analyst. | 
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