| Congratulations.. ...to Richard Gill, Editorial Director at t1ps.com, who has, after three gruelling years, passed all the levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams. Well done from all the UK-Analyst team. The Markets Economic data from Italy confirmed the country is moving deeper into recession, as the economy was shown to shrink by a further 0.7% in the second quarter of the year as government austerity measures affected overall demand. Compared to a year earlier, output contracted by 2.5%, with Italy's GDP having now fallen for a fourth successive quarter. In the UK, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sales in the retail sector climbed by just 0.1% in July, despite an improvement in weather and the start of the Olympics. The organisation said the figure was a result of the continued squeeze on household budgets. "Let's hope that Team GB keeps on increasing its medal tally, bringing a feel-good factor that helps consumer confidence," commented director general of the BRC, Stephen Robertson. At the London close the Dow Jones was up by 76.78 points at 13,194.29 and the Nasdaq was up by 23.88 points at 2,717.97.
In London the FTSE 100 rose by 32.47 points to 5,841.24; the FTSE 250 finished 34.54 points ahead at 11,460.94; the FTSE All-Share gained 12.03 points to 3,026.56; and the FTSE AIM Index rose by 2.52 points to 682.81. 
Broker Notes Panmure Gordon maintained its "buy" rating for NetDimensions (NETD) with a target price of 76p. With the learning software company looking to trade its shares on the OTCQX International trading platform, the broker believes the firm will gain greater exposure to investors in the US, where tech companies trade at a 28% premium to UK peers on an EV/EBITDA basis. Panmure also pointed to the group's strong client base, including Metersbonwe, which has 20,000 employees, and Best Buy International. The shares inched up by 0.25p to 31.5p. 
Canaccord Genuity retained its "buy" stance on Anite (AIE) with a 143p target price. The broker noted that the mobile software developer's shares have fallen by around 8% in recent weeks, which it attributed to the market misguidedly reading across from the poor performance of Spirent Communications (SPT). Canaccord believes the group is well positioned to take advantage of 4G testing software requirements in emerging markets. The broker added that the firm may look to dispose of its Travel division, which would allow it to focus on the wireless testing market. Shares in Anite gained 4.8p to 126.6p. Singer Capital reiterated its "buy" recommendation for F&C Asset Management (FCAM) with a 110p target price. The broker said that the group has achieved additional annual cost savings of 3 million pounds, bringing the total since October 2011 to 48.8 million pounds, and believes that further savings are on the way. While Singer noted that the group's performance may suffer from Euro weakness in the short-term it maintained that the shares remain attractive, trading on a prospective earnings multiple of 8.2 times for the 2013 financial year. The shares crept up by 0.15p to 88.25p. Blue-Chips A scandal has broken out at Standard Chartered (STAN), which has been accused by the New York State Department of Financial Services of hiding 250 billion dollars (160.4 billion pounds) worth of transactions with Iran. Dealings with the Iranian government are forbidden in the US, due to the country's determination to continue its nuclear weapons programme, and the situation has led some to fear that the bank could be stripped of its license to clear US dollars. The group has naturally refuted the claims and said that it is currently reviewing its historical compliance. This is the third global bank to become mired in controversy in the last month, leaving us all with the obvious question: "Who's next?". Shares in Standard Chartered crashed by 241.5p to 1,228.5p. 
Shares in InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) jumped by 103p to 1,725p after it announced plans to return 1 billion dollars (0.64 billion pounds) to shareholders, relating to the sale of its New York Barclay hotel, together with a 31% increase in the interim dividend to 21 cents (13.4p). The company noted that it had increased the number of rooms available to 666,873, across 4,542 hotels, as at 30th June, up 2% from the same time in 2011. The firm added that it had a pipeline of a further 167,485 rooms, with 40% already under construction. Mining group Xstrata (XTA), which is (still) involved in merger talks with fellow FTSE 100 group Glencore (GLEN), reported a 31.2% fail in operating EBITDA for the six months ended 30th June to 4 billion dollars (2.6 billion pounds) as it suffered from weakening commodity prices. In order to compensate, the firm undertook a cost cutting programme, which generated savings of 105 million dollars (67.2 million pounds) in the first half. The firm added that it has identified further cost saving opportunities in the second half of the financial year. The shares grew by 13.9p to 896.9p. Mid-Caps Greggs (GRG) confirmed that its performance was impacted by the heavy rainfall during the second quarter, resulting in like-for-like sales falling 2.3% during the 26 weeks ended 30th June. However, the barker achieved total sales growth of 4.5% to 350 million pounds, driven by new store openings. The firm added that the sale of frozen goods through Iceland supermarkets exceeded expectations and that the two franchised Greggs shops opened at motorway services also proved successful. Shares in Greggs dropped by 13.5p to 491.5p. 
Bellway (BWY) announced that it completed 5,226 homes in the financial year ended 31st July, 6.2% more than in the prior year, with an increased average selling price of 187,000 pound, from 175,613 pounds. The housebuilder noted that the government's NewBuy scheme accounted for 133 reservations in the 20 weeks since it was launched on 12th March. During the period, the firm spend 305 million pounds on land, particularly in the south of England and finished the year with a net debt position of 41 million pounds. The shares lost 11.5p to 825p. First half pre-tax profits at BBA Aviation (BBA) tumbled 27% year-on-year to 58.4 million dollars (37.5 million pounds), despite revenues rising by 3% to 1.1 billion dollars (0.7 billion pounds). The aviation support firm noted weak market conditions while also incurring an exceptional charge of 13.3 million dollars (8.5 million pounds), resulting from the closure of its Basingstoke facility. BBA shares descended by 5.3p to 178p. Small Caps, AIM and PLUS Tungsten and molybdenum producer Metal-Tech (MTT) announced Hillah Consultants, which owns a 71% stake in the group, and chief executive and chairman Ariel Rosenburg, who has a 9.3% holding, have agreed collectively to sell shares in Metal-Tech representing 51% of the company's share capital to Iscar Limited. The 10.2 million dollar consideration paid by the multinational producer of tungsten cutting tools, equates to a purchase price of 33.4p per share, a premium of 184% to the pre-announcement share price. The shares surged by 12.25p to 24p. In the bioscience sector, specialist cancer drug discovery company Sareum Holdings (SAR) noted the recent rise in the volumes of its shares, confirming it is in advanced negotiations with a potential licensing partner. The board admitted discussions could potentially lead to a licencing agreement for one of its major research programmes. Excited by the development, investors bought into the shares, which rocketed by 0.95p to 1.575p. Mongolia focused oil exploration company Petro Matad (MATD) unveiled the appointment of Dr. Ridvan Karpuz to the position of exploration manager, a qualified professional with 23 years experience in the sector. Dr. Karpuz joins Petro Matad from Austrian listed integrated oil and gas company OMV, where he spent the last four years as a exploration and reservoir manager in Iran, Yemen and more recently Tunisia. He also has substantial experience establishing and operating subsurface exploration teams and of delivering fast-track exploration to production programmes. Petro Matad shares rose 0.625p to 8.5p. 
Imagelinx (ILI) shareholders are pleased with the progress the company has made since losing its largest client, Proctor and Gamble, the brand management services firm unveiling a significant drop in performance for the six months to June against the same period in 2011, but reporting an improvement against the six months to December. Against the second half of 2011, sales were down 13% at 3.72 million pounds although a heavy cut back in outgoings led Imagelinx to report a 72% reduction in pre-tax losses to 280,000 pounds. The business also admitted its existing accounts had been less active than it would normally expect, however new clients in Europe have started to generate revenue which is expected to improve the group's financial performance in the second half of the year. Imagelinx shares rose by 0.0375p to 0.375p. Shares in InterQuest Group (ITQ) were knocked for six on Tuesday, collapsing by 7.5p to 34p as the recruitment business said a continued deterioration in trading conditions in the banking and finance recruitment sectors within the UK and Middle East meant these operations would take longer to reach profitability than initially anticipated. Meanwhile, the firm admitted a number of investments made during the six months to June, including the opening of its first oversea office in Singapore and the move of its financial services business into a new office in Canary Wharf, would have a short-term negative impact on 2012 profits. This aside, InterQuest reported a 6% climb in net fee income to 7.81 million pounds for the six months to June, and a 1.7 percentage point improvement in gross margins to 14.7%. Proteome Sciences (PRM) reported it has achieved further milestones in the development of inhibitors of the casein kinase 1 delta (CK1d) target in its Alzheimer's disease portfolio. A second round of modelling of the most active and selective CK1d inhibitors has reportedly produced a marked improvement in activity and selectivity against the main anti-target. Confirmation of the success of the drug in these studies will allow for the progression of the drug CK1d to 'in vivo' studies in the second half of the year. "It is key to explore the chemical space effectively and quickly so that these interesting series may be rapidly exploited" commented non-executive director Professor Bill Dawson. Proteome shares closed 2.5p higher at 36p. | 
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