Tuesday 19 February
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears. "
Robert W. Sarnoff
THIS MORNING IN LONDON
FTSE 100
6,355.06
36.87 0.58%
FTSE 250
13,619.09
120.10 -0.89%
FTSE 350
3,411.76
21.24 0.63%
FTSE All Share
3,343.16
20.44 0.62%
AIM 100
3,381.75
14.23 0.42%
AIM All Share
753.57
1.73 0.23%
13:15 pm
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Hello Share Shovellers,
Shares are a bit stodgy at the moment. No news is not good news in Crazyland. When nothing very much happens, share prices tend to decay. Not very fast, perhaps, but the direction is wrong.
Will there be better news on the horizon soon? Well, we are all expecting some good tidings on the jobs front in the UK. We may have a nasty recession with no growth, but for some strange reason the number of new jobs keeps on growing. And the tally of old jobs is being kept in place – a lot of the time.
CLICK HERE for the full article
NEW ON THE BLOG
I have been watching with a mixture of glee and disbelief the meteoric rise in the shares of online grocer Ocado since last November, during which time they have trebled, reaching a high of 139p last week.
There seem to be five basic reasons for the rise...
CLICK HERE for the full article
High profile M&A activity in the U.S. last week livened up a worried market beset with Eurozone slowdown fears, debt drama and a looming US budget battle. In particular, Heinz shares shot up last Thursday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G’s takeover of the global ketchup maker for $28billion. Peers Kellogg, Kraft Foods and General Mills shares rose in reaction to the news on that day.
So do the deluge of recent deals signal the long awaited return of M&A after three years of relatively low deal activity?
CLICK HERE for the full article
REPORT OF THE DAY
e-Therapeutics - Fundraising de-risks investment case
by Growth Equities & Company Research
e-Therapeutics is set to raise enough cash to fund its lead cancer drug (ETS2101) through to a potential lucrative licensing deal and to apply its unique network pharmacology platform over a sustained period with the aim of producing a stream of new drugs for development.
While this is clearly encouraging from a financial point of view, it is also pleasing to see the strong support received from both existing and new shareholders.
With the company’s drug candidates making good progress and the investment case now further de-risked, our stance firmly remains as a buy.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT
THIS MORNING IN LONDON
German sentiment data buoys stocks
A better-than-expected reading of German confidence pushed stock markets firmly into positive territory by Tuesday lunchtime.
The ZEW Institute's index, which measures economic sentiment in the Eurozone's largest economy, surged to 48.2 in February, ahead of last month's reading of 31.5 surpassing forecasts of a reading of 35 .
"This is just the latest in a long list of surveys out of the Eurozone which suggest 2013 is going to be the year when the region bottoms out and begins the move back towards recovery," market analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said this morning. "It also all but confirms what the Bundesbank said yesterday that the German economy will not fall into recession in this quarter, despite contracting by 0.6% in the fourth quarter".
However, he added the caveat that markets should not get "too carried away" with the data.
"While these surveys are positive, we are yet to see any hard data to confirm that [the] worst is actually behind us. Once this starts to make its way out, I think we could see the start of the next phase of the equity rally, not to mention the euro's ascent back towards 1.40."
FTSE 100: StanChart makes gains after upgrade
Emerging markets lender Standard Chartered was performing well this morning after Morgan Stanley raised its rating for the stock from 'equal weight' to 'overweight'. The shares were trading at their highest levels since January 2011.
However, HSBC was under the weather after the same broker changed its recommendation in the opposite direction, saying the shares are "fairly valued on lower revenue growth expectations".
"'We are switching our preference from HSBC to STAN, due to the improvement in the Asian economic environment -a positive for STAN's asset quality outlook- as well as valuations reaching par," Morgan Stanley said.
Telecoms group Vodafone was also affected by broker commentary today, with shares lower after Berstein downgraded the stock from 'market perform' to 'underperform'.
Financial services giant Old Mutual was on the up after the Financial Times reported that the company is considering undertaking a part flotation of its US asset management business.
Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels was among the worst performers after saying that revenue per available room (RevPAR) had fallen 5.2% in 2012. Nevertheless, strong growth in the US and cost cuts helped to produce a 10% increase in operating profits.
FTSE 250: Drax impresses after full-year beat
In spite of Drax's EBITDA falling 10.6% to £298.4m in 2012, the coal power station group was making gains after the result came in ahead of the company's own guidance range (£285-290m) and the consensus forecast (£292.5m).
High Street betting shop Ladbrokes rose after Investec raised its recommendation from 'hold' to 'buy', citing a "promising outlook".
Shares in European gaming group Rank were down slightly despite receiving the green light from the Competition Commission to acquire 19 casinos from Gala Coral Group.
Soft drinks group Britvic was higher after Nomura said that its US franchise story "appears to be delivering".
CLICK HERE FOR THE DAY'S FASTEST MOVING STOCKS
WHAT THE BROKERS SAY
Power station group Drax's full-year results may have come in slightly ahead of expectations but Cantor Fitzgerald retained its 'sell' rating for the stock on Tuesday morning. UBS has raised its target price for Reed Elsevier from 770p to 790p and reiterated its 'buy' rating for the stock ahead of the publishing and exhibitions group's full-year results later this month.
Nomura has resumed coverage of soft drinks group Britvic with a 'buy' rating, saying it sees upside from US franchising and if the AG Barr merger is revisited.
High Street betting shop Ladbrokes was performing well on Tuesday morning, with shares given a boost by Investec which raised its rating for the stock from 'hold' to 'buy'.
Click here for the rest of the broker recommendations
THE LATEST ON THE CRAZY BOARD
The top 5 hot company threads on the Bulletin Board:
DIGITAL BARRIERS (DGB)
RANGE RESOURCES(RRL)- Worth a Punt in Puntland?
RED EMPEROR RESOURCES(RMP)-RANGE shadow?
Havelock Europa PLC (HVE )Tiddler Worth Watching
JUBILANT ENERGY - 2nd attempt at London Float.
Click here to discuss shares with other ShareCrazy members
Regards,
ShareCrazy
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