From UK-Analyst.com: Friday 30th November 2012
Competition The UK-Analyst Friday Competition is back! This week's prize is a pair of tickets to the UK's leading investment show, Master Investor 2013, which is taking place on Saturday 27th April 2013, at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London. To enter, send your funniest caption for the picture below to richard.gill@t1ps.com by 9am on Monday morning. 
The Markets The European Central Bank reported that the Eurozone's unemployment rate hit a new record high in October as the jobless rate reached 11.7%. This figure is up from 11.6% on the previous month and an increase from 10.4% on the previous year as a further 173,000 people were out of work across the single currency area. Alberto Gallo, an economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland said "The real problem is that we have a two-speed Europe, the biggest increase is being driven by Italy and Spain". Over in India, the GDP growth rate slowed in the July-September quarter, putting pressure on the government to ease monetary policy. The economy grew by 5.3% in the three months, a 0.2% decrease on the same period in 2011. This growth figure was identical to that recorded in the first quarter of the year, the lowest rate for three years. Brinda Jargindar, chief economist at State Bank of India believes that there is a wide-scale slowdown in growth and said "Growth has become critical as consumption is stalling on top of continued investment slowdown". Staying in Asia, Japanese government passed another stimulus package to revive growth, as the contracting economy becomes a focal point in the upcoming general election. An extra 6.7 billion pounds has been raised with a focus on creating employment and supporting small businesses. However, the measure has been subject to heavy criticism, Junko Nishioka from RBS Japan Securities said "The total size is not enough to really boost gross domestic product, especially for the next year, it is not enough to change the mood of business activity." At the London close the Dow Jones was down by 16.12 points at 13005.70 and the Nasdaq fell by 9.66 points to 2,670.37. In London the FTSE 100 decreased by 3.48 points to 5,866.82; the FTSE 250 finished 7.65 points up at 12034.22; the FTSE All-Share lost 1.1 points to 2997.14; and the FTSE AIM Index crept up by 3.34 points to 692.12.  Broker Notes Seymour Pierce reiterated its "buy" stance on Harvey Nash (HVN) with a target price of 100p. The broker is impressed with the recruitment company's recent trading update in which it reported pre-tax profits up by 3%, a rise which was above expectations. The broker is of the opinion that the outlook remains positive for and believes that Harvey Nash operates in attractive sectors of the recruitment industry where demand levels have recently remained elevated despite the weak macroeconomic conditions. The shares increased by 1p to 57p. N+1 Singer maintained a "buy" stance on Consort Medical (CSRT) with a target price of 815p. The broker envisages a number of potentially catalysing events to occur in the near future, including a decision on whether Consort has been awarded a manufacturing contract for the nicotine inhaler device (DEV 200,) which could generate revenues not yet factored into forecasts. The company's current transformation plan also interests the broker, with upcoming results anticipated to show a significant margin enhancement from the second half of the year onwards. The shares slipped down by 1.5p to 758.5p. 
Shore Capital issued a "sell" recommendation on medical technology business Smith & Nephew (SN.). The broker thinks that the operating environment in the established orthopaedic market in which the firm works remains challenging and does not see any signs of improvement in the short-term. More specific to the company, the broker is cautious on the great deal of organisational change currently underway at the firm and believes that Smith & Nephew is trading at a premium to its US counterparts, Stryker and Zimmer. The shares fell by 2p to 657.5p. Blue-Chips Property owner British Land (BLND) has agreed to let 24,392 sq ft of office space at its new West End development at 10 Portman Square, London W1. The office space has been rented by Aramco Overseas Company UK, a recruitment company, with an average rent of £90.76 per sq ft. The firm has secured the 5th floor and part of the 4th floor. This comes a week after news that Asper Capital rented 24,520 space of office space on the top two floors making the property, scheduled to be complete in April next year, 43% pre-let. The shares were up by 7p at 550p. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) revealed that its agreement to sell its Indian Retail & Commercial banking operations to The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has lapsed and will not be taking place. The deal did not take place because all conditions required to close the transaction were not satisfied. Despite this setback, RBS will continue with its strategic objective of winding down business in its retail and commercial banking business in India in an attempt to reduce its Non-Core assets and businesses. The shares lost 3.8p to 295.2p. 
Mid Caps European coal producer New World Resources (NWR) sadly reported that one of its employees working for its Czech subsidiary O.K.D has died at its CSM Plant. An investigation will shortly be underway with CSM line management, the district mining authority and the Czech police hoping to ascertain the reason for the 23-year-old employee's death. The company went on to stress that this incident did not have any impact on production. The shares gained 2.3p to 264.4p. Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) has paid DermaPet a sum of 15 million dollars as the company has hit specific sale targets since Dechra's acquisition of the company back in 2010. The payment was triggered by the rolling 12 month revenue from the sale of DermaPet products exceeding 15 million dollars in October 2012. A further clause of the acquisition is that an extra 5 million dollars is due if, at any point in the next four years, the rolling 12 monthly revenue of DermaPet exceeds 20 million dollars. The shares inched up 0.5p to 583.5p. Small Caps & AIM Provider of business management software Pilat Media Global (PGB) posted a 3.4% dip in revenue,s as well as a swing from a profit of 0.37 million pounds to a loss of 20,000 pounds, for the 3 month period ended 30th September. The company say that this performance was in line with its expectations given the tough market conditions. Furthermore, the firm revealed a newly agreed contract with a "prominent" media company covering its linear channel and on demand services across Europe, Middle East and Africa. The shares remained flat at 29p. Peninsular Gold (PGL), the gold production and exploration company, reported a pre-tax profit of 3 million pounds for the year to June, a 78% rise on the previous year. This was boosted by record level of production from the Raub Mine in Australia, which helped grow revenues by 32% to 18.74 million pounds. On top of the results, new mineral bodies have been identified at the company's Northern licence areas and new drilling targets have been established below the oxide zone identified at the Raub mine. The shares rose by 0.25p to 20p. Seeing Machines (SEE), which is focused on vision based human machine interfaces, announced it has made the largest single sale to date of its driver safety solution (DSS), with 180 units sold to a site in the Atacama desert in Chile for an undiscosed amount. The site is one of the largest producing mines and run by a group of companies including "global industry majors". The company also announced that it has appointed Paul Johnson as senior vice president for DSS with a primary focus on building the firm's international sales capability. The shares increased by 0.25p to 2.38p. 
Real Estate owner Ablon Group (ABL) announced it has partially sold the Karolkowa Business Park (KBP) in Warsaw to ASBUD Piaseczno, a Warsaw-based developer. The agreement is to sell 50% of the project for a fee of 7.5 million euros (6.1 million pounds). The development, which is expected to be completed in around 20 months, will include 14,900 sqm of office space, 3000 sqm of retail space and 260 underground car parking spaces. Significantly, a new metro station is being built in the vIcinity in order to improve transport links from the business centre to the rest of Warsaw. The shares remained flat at 15.1325p. Independent oil and gas company Enegi Oil (ENEG) announced positive results relating to it 100% owned Clare Basin operations, onshore Ireland. The company has obtained new geological data that indicates that the whole area under the option remains prospective for shale gas, given the maturity, thickness and buried depth of the shale, Furthermore, the studies also reveal that some of the resource could be of particularly high grade based on the thickness of the shale and lack of faulting present. The shares were up by 0.875p at 13.25p. Quindell Portfolio* (QPP), the provider of consultancy and technology enabled outsourcing, announced that the OS3 frameworks product suite from Quindell Telecoms was awarded TM Forum's product conformance Mark. The award relates to its adoption of a SID based information model that will drive interoperability with other service provider B/OSS systems. Senior vice president of TM Forum's said " We congratulate Quindell..on the adoption of TM Forum's Frameworx, it shows Quindell's commitment to providing service providers with standards based solutions that reduce the total cost of system ownership" The shares grew by 0.375p to 17.5p. | 
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