| From UK-Analyst.com: Friday 5th April 2013
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The Markets New car sales in the UK grew by 5.9% in March on a year-on-year basis, extending the run of growth to 13th successive months. The figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) also confirmed that private registrations accounted for 51.7% of the 394,806 newly registered cars, while fleet cars accounted for 43.5% and business vehicles accounted for 4.8% of the total amount of newly purchased vehicles. Mike Baunton, SMMT interim Chief Executive insisted, "Despite ongoing economic concerns, consistent monthly growth in the market is an encouraging sign of returning consumer confidence as motorists are attracted to forecourts by new models and the latest technologies." Staying in the UK, house prices are continuing to slowly rise, with figures from mortgage provider Halifax suggesting that the average price of the UK house over the first three months of this year was up by 1.1%. According to the Halifax figures the average price of a UK house is now 163,943 pounds, a figure still significantly lower that the peak August 2007 level of 199,612 pounds. Despite this modestly positive news experts refuse to get carried away as Martin Ellis, Halifax Housing Economist, warned, "Weak income growth and continuing below-trend economic growth are likely to remain significant constraints on housing demand during the remainder of this year." On the back of the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) decision to double the country's money supply for the next 5 years the Nikkei 225 index climbed by 4.7% to a peak of 13,225.62 - the highest level since August 2008. Shares in the housebuilding sector rallied particularly well, with shares in property group Mitsui Fudosan soaring by 13% as investors anticipate asset appreciations. Shares in car producers reacted positively too, with Mazda - Japan's most export-dependent automaker - up by 3.1%. Ryota Sakagami, Chief Strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo, commented, "The Japanese stock market is on the verge of a bubble, the Bank of Japan and the government are working together to push up asset prices. The BOJ has given the impression that it will act if the market were to go down, so it doesn't look like there will be a correction." 
At the London close the Dow Jones was down by 109.81 points at 14,496.30 and the Nasdaq lost 34.37 points to 2,760.55. In London the FTSE 100 was down by 94.34 points at 6,249.78; the FTSE 250 finished 275.34 points down at 13,480.21; the FTSE All-Share was down by 51.73 points at 3,292.67; and the FTSE AIM Index slipped by 6.20 to 711.73.  Broker Notes Canaccord Genuity retained its "buy" recommendation on construction group Interserve (IRV) with a 560p target price. The broker is impressed with the two contract wins in the UK announced last week which have a combined value of over 280 million pounds. Furthermore, Canaccord is on the verge of upgrading its forecasts following the 10% organic growth which was exhibited in 2012 and has faith in Interserve's "strong pipeline of opportunities". The shares fell by 10.8p to 458.7p. Shore Capital re-iterated its "buy" recommendation on food and clothes retailer Marks and Spencer (MKS) citing an impressive group infrastructure and increasingly competitive e--commerce proposition. The broker is also encouraged by the group's "sensible but incremental internationalisation" and good progress with its UK food operation. However, the broker does concede that it has been disappointed by the recent momentum within the group's core ladieswear ranges in the UK and acknowledges that a continuation of this slowdown will be detrimental in terms of share price. The shares were down by 10p at 376.8p. Panmure Gordon maintained its "buy" recommendation on homewares retailer Dunelm Group (DNLM) with a target price of 886p. The broker feels that Dunelm is a worthy investment because of its highly cash generative nature which, according to Panmure's estimates, has given it the capability to return another 80-90 million pounds to shareholders in FY2016. Furthermore, Panmure predicts that UK weather conditions in the last three months are likely to have been neutral overall for Dunelm, as while cold weather is good news for sales of homewares, settled snow clearly causes disruption and means customers are unable to get to stores. The shares slid by 4.5p to 827.5p. ADVERTISEMENT Want to learn what some of the UK's most successful investors think of the current markets?
Then make sure you come to this year's Master Investor show. Speakers include the UK's 112th richest man Jim Mellon, Innocent Smoothies founder Richard Reed and infamous bear raider Evil Knievil, amongst many others. To claim a free pair of tickets (worth £40) CLICK HERE and enter the promo code UKA2013 Blue-Chips Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN) revealed that its new rheumatoid arthritis pill "fostamatinib" only satisfied one out of two criteria in an advanced stage trial, throwing the future commercial prospects of the drug into doubt. According to the group, the drug achieved a statistically significant improvement at 24 weeks in a test which analysed signs and symptoms of the disease - the so-called ACR20 response rate. However, the treatment did not show any improvement on the all important x-ray results according to the findings of the Oskira-1 phase III study. The shares lost 6p to 3,282.5p. Mid Caps Low-cost airline easyJet (EZJ) posted an 8.5% increase in revenue per seat for the 6 months ended March 31st, driven by stronger than expected late bookings in the run up to Easter. However, results could have been even better if the bad weather did not cause as many cancellations, with the snow and wintery conditions limiting capacity growth to a lower than guidance 3.3%. Recent opinion on easyJet amongst brokers has been markedly positive, with both Deutsche Bank and Investec issuing "buy" recommendations this week. The shares dived by 70p to 1,027p. ADVERTISEMENT Spreadbet on airlines at t1pspreadbetting.co.uk - as well as other Equities, Stock Indices, Commodities, Bonds & Forex - CLICK HERE to open an account at our brand new trading platform Small Caps & AIM Maritime technology firm Software Radio Technology (SRT) expects that results for the year ended 31st March 2013 will be ahead of expectations, with revenue thought to have increased by 60% to 10 million pounds. The group also expects EBITDA and after tax profits to be recorded as 2.2 million pounds and 1.5 million pounds respectively. These figures were significantly ahead of WH Ireland's estimates, with the broker subsequently retaining its "buy" recommendation with a 34p target price. SRT attributed its success to a significantly increased product offering, with the group launching a new product every 12 weeks on average. The shares sailed upwards up 2.25p to 22.5p. Oil outfit Magnolia Petroleum (MAGP) revealed promising initial production data obtained from three wells in which the group has minority interests. In North Dakota, the BB Rice 2 and BB Rice 3 each produced over 2,000 barrels of oil per day. These results, which were above expectations, coupled with further promising well results in the Mississippi Lime formation, add a total of approximately 5 barrels a day net to Magnolia. The shares were down by 0.05p at 2.625p. Stockbrokers Cenkos Securities (CNKS) announced a 37% increase in pre-tax profits to 7 million pounds for 2012 on a 16% uplift in revenues to 43.2 million pounds. The broker - which generates most of its business from AIM listed clients - attributed this improvement to higher levels of income from placings, corporate finance fees and market making revenues. Cenkos did concede that the costs of continuing operations rose by 13% over the year, primarily due to higher levels of staff costs as the group geared itself increasingly towards performance related pay. The shares grew by 7p to 87.5p.  t
Security software specialist Intercede (IGP) announced that trading for the financial year ended 31st March 2013 is set to be in line with expectations. The group attributed this on-target performance to new contract wins, a widened pipeline and increased investment in the development of new technologies and products. The shares inched up by 1.25p to 57.5p. Alternative Energy group SeaEnergy (SEA) posted revenues of 833,000 pounds for 2012 after generating no revenues the year previously, reducing its underlying loss to 2.4 million pounds from 3.27 million pounds in 2011. Over the coming few months, the group intends to diversify its "R2S" offshore energy platform services business into a wider range of international locations and into additional market sectors, including offshore wind, where, according the group, there is the best potential to create synergies with the rest of the businesses. The shares declined by 1p to 26.5p. Vessel operator Yujin International (YUJ) announced that its Yujin Shipping subsidiary has completed the sale of its MT Gallant bunker tanker to a Singapore-based operator which paid $2.5 million (1.62 million pounds). The Asia-Pacific focused group revealed that the proceeds of the sale will be used to partly repay an existing bank loan and for working capital purposes. The shares plummeted by 5p to 15p.
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