| Competition The UK-Analyst Friday Competition is back! This week's prize is a copy of Shares Made Simple (2nd Edition) by Rodney Hobson (RRP13.99). To enter, send your funniest caption for the picture below to richard.gill@t1ps.com by 9am on Monday morning. 
The Markets Householders are set to face even more of a squeeze on their finances this winter after energy giant Npower owned rival British Gas by saying it will increase utility prices. From 26th November Npower will increase gas prices by an average of 8.8% and electricity prices by 9.1%. Centrica owned rival British Gas has announced average increases for gas and electricity of around 6%. Elsewhere, in the US, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said the US housing market "has turned the corner" in the company's latest earnings release, the firm posting net profits of $5.7 billion for the three months to September. At the London close the Dow Jones was down by 5.79 points at 13,320.60 and the Nasdaq was up by 1.99 points at 2,721.10. In London the FTSE 100 fell by 36.43 points to 5,793.32; the FTSE 250 finished 60.13 points behind at 11,838.26; the FTSE All-Share lost 17.96 points to 3,025.62; and the FTSE AIM Index declined by 1.22 points to 702.63. 
Broker Notes Shore Capital reiterated its "sell" recommendation for PZ Cussons (PZC), noting concerns over its short-term prospects. The personal healthcare company continues to suffer from civil unrest in Nigeria and the broker also pointed to difficult trading in the UK, leading it to downgrade its forecasts. However, Shore noted that the firm has attractive growth opportunities in the medium-term in countries such as Indonesia and that any improvement to conditions in Nigeria could have a dramatic impact on the group. The shares gained 2.1p to 314.6p.  Panmure Gordon maintained its "buy" rating for Ladbrokes (LAD) with a 195p target price. The broker believes the bookmaker had a resilient performance in its third quarter, with better than expected football results compensating for a number of horse racing cancellations. Panmure forecasts full year EBIT of 202.5 million pounds but believes that this will fall to 197.1 million pounds in 2013 as the company faces the introduction of Machine Games Duty. Ladbrokes shares lost 0.7p to 177.4p. Northland Capital kept its "buy" stance for Bellway (BWY) with a target price of 1,050p. The housebuilder will release full year results on 16th October and the broker expects to see operating margins rise to 11%, from 10.1% in its first half, with the completion of 5,226 sales. Northland noted that the firm benefited from rising average sales prices, up 6% on 2011's levels at around 187,000 pounds, as it improved its product and regional mix. On the broker's forecasts, the shares trade on a prospective earnings multiple of 14.9 times for 2012, falling to 11.9 times in 2013. The shares fell by 5.5p to 934.5p. Blue-Chips Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) reported record levels of assets under management of 28.5 billion pounds as at 30th September, up by 2.2 billion pounds from the end of July. The group added that it achieved a 20% rise in year-on-year revenues for the quarter ended 30th September to 68.7 million pounds, despite share dealing volumes slipping by 6% to 357,000. The financial services firm also noted that the number of Active Vantage clients rose by 7,000 to 432,000 and that 10,000 new accounts were opened. Hargreaves shares jumped by 24p to 712p. 
Engineering firm AMEC (AMEC) announced a restructuring of its business, which will now be managed of a geographical basis, instead of on just a sector basis. To this end, the group has appointed Simon Naylor, John Pearson and Hisham Mahmoud as the new heads of the American, Europe and Growth Region divisions, respectively. The company believes that this new organisational structure will allow it to target previously unexplored opportunities for growth. The shares slipped by 13p to 1,103p. Mid-Caps Shares in Morgan Crucible (MGCR) fell by 28.5p to 227.3p after it warned that third quarter revenues dropped 10% on first half average levels and that full year results are now expected to fall short of previous consensus forecasts. The carbon and ceramics company attributed the fall to weakening demand for its advanced materials and technology business, while trading for its ceramics and motel metal systems divisions remained more resilient. 
Computacenter (CCC) reported that revenues for its third quarter rose by 6% year-on-year to 656 million pounds on a constant currency basis, but due to adverse exchange movements, actual growth was just 1%. The IT infrastructure services company achieved 12% growth in the UK, securing a number of new contracts, and noted that its pipeline remains strong for the rest of the year. However, the weakness of the euro against the pound pushed down revenues in Germany by some 6% and the firm also noted that it was facing operation challenges in coping with newer contracts. Computacenter shares shed 7p to close at 373p. Construction and support services firm Interserve (IRV) announced that it has disposed of its holdings in two subsidiaries for a combined sum of 89.5 million pounds, in order to focus on new investments. The firm expects to receive the cash within 11 days and the transaction will result in a one-off profit of around 60 million pounds. The shares closed up by 2.6p at 373p. Small Caps, AIM and PLUS Shares in troubled London taxi maker Manganese Bronze (MNGS) were suspended from AIM at 10p per share this morning, a few hours before the company announced a disastrous product recall. The company is calling back 400 of its TX4 London taxis and suspending sales of the new models after finding a defect in the steering box. As a result Manganese expects a "very material and detrimental impact" on its cash flows, with its financial position remaining unclear. Tuis is the latest in a string of bad news for the company, which only last month announced a 3.1 million pound operating loss for the six months to June 2012.
One of the biggest AIM gainers of the day was Verona Pharma (VRP) shares in which soared by 0.75p to 4.5p after the drug developer announced positive data from a Phase I/IIa study of its asthma drug RPL554. The placebo-controlled, randomised and double-blind study found that the dug was was well tolerated, without gastrointestinal and cardiovascular side effects seen elsewhere. Verona is investigating its use for the treatment of respiratory diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Also on the up was Beowolf Mining (BEM) which announced that its test mining application for the Kallak North iron ore project, in Jokkmokk northern Sweden, has been approved by the local authorities. However, subsidiary Jokkmokk Iron Mines is still awaiting receipt of the official confirmation of the decision from the authorities and a further announcement will be made in due course. The shares gained 0.5p to close at 8.75p. 
Investment business Brainspark (BSP) announced that investee business ORA Hotels is continuing its exansion programme. Following its acquisition of the brands Alba Tour and Un Altro Sole in summer, a total of 300 new rooms will be offered to guests in 2013 through its long-haul division, providing new locations, including Mozambique, where it will shortly open a new 102 room luxury hotel. In addition, ORH has signed a new contract to take over three Raouf Hotels, totalling 734 rooms, in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt. The company expects this new operation to contribute an additional EUR 500,000 net profit to ORH in 2013. Brainspark shares stayed flat at 4.75p. Rockhopper Exploration (RKP) has received formal agreement from the Falkland Islands Government and both relevant licensees regarding its farm-out agreement with Premier Oil. Under the agreement Premier will acquire 60% of Rockhopper's interests in its North Falkland Basin licences. Formal completion of the farm-out process is expected shortly. The shares ended the day down by 3p at 167p. Intellectual property support services business RWS Holdings (RWS) expects to meet profit forecasts for the year to September (before currency movements) after seeing strong growth in its core patent translations business. Nevertheless, the shares fell by 14.25p to 530p. On a constant currency basis, RWS expects to deliver at least a 7.7% increase in revenues to approximately 70 million pounds for the period. RWS also said that its German business has improved in the second half and that net cash was 25.3 million pounds at the period end after spending 6.1 million pounds on acquisitions. | 
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