| From UK-Analyst.com: Thursday 4th April 2013
IMPORTANT: Are your UK-Analyst emails being delayed? Add UK-Analyst@news.t1ps.com to your safe senders/contact list to help resolve the problem The Markets The UK service sector grew at its fastest pace in seven months in March providing hope that the UK economy can avoid sliding back into recession. The main Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index for the service sector climbed to 52.4 in March from 51.8 in February, edging further away from the 50 mark which divides expansion and contraction. The news will be welcomed by economists who were fearful of a third UK recession in 5 years after poor recent figures from both the construction and manufacturing sectors. The news comes as the Bank of England has decided not to expand its stimulus programme of quantitative easing and has also kept interest rates unchanged at 0.5%. Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at survey compilers Markit ,said, "The government and Bank of England will breathe sighs of relief in seeing signs of a gathering upturn in the service sector during March, which looks set to have helped the UK avoid a triple-dip recession by the narrowest of margins." Over in Japan, the nation's central bank revealed that it is to inject 929.3 billion pounds into the economy over the next two years in an attempt to reach its target 2% inflation level. The surprise move is a brash bid to stimulate growth and end years of falling prices within the country. Yoshimasa Maruyama, Chief Economist as Itochu Economic Research Institute said "Achieving 2% inflation in two years remains quite difficult. But the possibility of that target being achieved is now much higher than before with these measures." The European Central Bank has held interest rates steady at 0.75% for a ninth successive month - the highest rate enforced by any major global central bank. It is thought that the ECB has held rates in the hope of a widespread economic recovery. However, ECB president Mario Draghi hinted that interest rates could be cut soon and said, " In the coming weeks, we will monitor very closely all the incoming information on economic and monetary developments, and assess the impact on the outlook for price stability."
 At the London close the Dow Jones was down by 3.01 points at 14,547.34 and the Nasdaq lost 13.04 points to 2,782.00. In London the FTSE 100 was down by 76.16 points to 6,344.12; the FTSE 250 finished 204.65 points down at 13,755.55; the FTSE All-Share was down by 40.85 points to 3,344.40; and the FTSE AIM Index fell by 5.91 to 717.93.  Broker Notes Canaccord Genuity downgraded its "speculative buy" recommendation on gold mining group Centamin (CEY) to "sell" with a 38p target price. The broker feels as if the delay in the court ruling relating to the validity of the group's mining licence puts a lid on the shares' upside and creates a room for potential negative news flow and media speculation during 2013. Furthermore, Canaccord forecasts that the company will have to contend with average total cash costs of US$876/oz in 2014-15, above the peer group average of US$849/oz. The shares slipped by 3.67p to 41.95p. Panmure Gordon maintained its "buy" recommendation on office suppliers Office 2 Office* (OFF) with a 120p target price. The broker believes that Office 2 Office should deliver a more consistent pattern of growth from 2013 onwards, with margins aided by increasing levels of spend in higher-margin digital services products. Furthermore, Panmure noted that a number of contract wins have been implemented which should also benefit the current year now that they are up and running. The shares inched up by 1p to 95p. N+1 Singer retained its "buy" recommendation on electronics suppler Darty (DRTY) with a target price of 60p. The broker welcomes the "long overdue" shut down of the group's loss making Spanish operations and feels this a good strategic step forward. N+1 Singer conceded that the shares are a "long haul recovery play" but believes the group has the balance sheet flexibility to achieve the turnaround. The shares flew by 5.75p to 48.25p. 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 Energy service group AMEC (AMEC) revealed that trading for the first three months of the year has been in line with expectations and still expects to deliver low-to-mid single-digit underlying revenue growth during 2013. The firm said that it is experiencing high demand for its services and investment in its end markets, especially from clients in the regular oil and gas sector. However, there has been some "softening" activity in the oil sands and mining markets. Recent consensus on the shares has been largely positive with both Nomura and Deutsche Bank re-iterating their "buy" recommendations last month. The shares were up by 19p at 1,098p. Banking group HSBC (HSBA) announced that it has disposed of its Quantitative Techniques (QT) operations to Euromoney Trading Limited for no material fee. QT creates and maintains more than 100 equity and bond indices for HSBC's Global Markets division as well as over 60 external clients. The transaction is another example of HSBC's ongoing streamlining process and follows the sale of its Singapore-based insurance businesses to AXA Life Insurance Singapore yesterday. The shares were down by 7.5p at 694p. ADVERTISEMENT Spreadbet on the UK banks 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
Mid Caps Fast food chain Dominos Pizza (DOM) announced a 6.6% increase in like-for-like sales for the 13 weeks ended 31st March 2013 boosted by sales of new products such as Domino's Hot Dog Stuffed Crust. Domino's also highlighted the growing importance of internet sourced sales over the period, which accounted for 61.9% of all sales, up from 49.8% in the previous year. The company went on to warn that it has to contend with food cost increases and very tough Q2 comparatives in the coming months. The shares grew by 36p to 607p. Pork supplier Cranswick (CWK) announced that underlying sales were up by 5% in the year ended 31st March 2013 and up by a total of 7% when taking into account the acquisition of Kingston Foods which was completed in June last year. Cranswick also confirmed that construction of its 30 million pound new pastry facility in Malton, North Yorkshire remains on schedule and on budget. On the back of this news broker N+1 Singer retained its "buy" recommendation on the shares, while Numis and Panmure Gordon thought it more appropriate to stick with their "hold" stances. The shares lost 1p to 1,014p. 
Small Caps & AIM Wholesalers Booker Group (BOK) announced that like-for-like sales were up by 2.2% for the 12 weeks ended 29t March 2013 while total sales grew by 4.3%. However, tobacco sales - a significant source of revenue for the group - were down by 0.9%. The group went on to stress that the expansion of its wholesale business in India was on track and that it will soon be opening its third branch in Mumbai. The shares were down by 1.3p at 121.5p. Fuel technology company Clean Air Power (CAP) revealed a 73% increase in group revenue for 2012 and reduced its pre-tax losses from 2.4 million pounds to 2.2 million pounds. The main driver for the improvement in performance was a 101% uplift in revenue from its Dual-Fuel division. A particular headline-grabber from 2012 was an order for 49 Genesis-EDGE Dual-Fuel systems, which was delivered to Sainsbury's. The shares lost 0.875p to 10.25p. Online loyalty systems business Universe Group (UNG) confirmed that pre-tax profits grew by 47% to 1.01 million pounds as sales revenues jumped by 13% to 11.9 million pounds in 2012. The year was a transitional one for the group, characterised by an expansion of product offerings and an extension to already existing products. Universe is adamant that the group's disposal of its loss-making manufacturing division will enable it to become a more profitable and much more focused managed software and services business. The shares slid by 0.125p to 5p.
London focused office space suppliers Serviced Office Group (SVO) posted a 30.3% increase in revenues to 15.99 million pounds for 2012, which helped to turn around the 8.8 million pounds loss recorded for 2011 into a pre-tax profit of 4.3 million pounds. Profits were boosted by 9.4 million pounds worth of gains on refinancing, offset by revaluation losses on properties of 4.8 million pounds and share-based payments of 1 million pounds. The shares gained 0.125p to 3.125p @UK (ATUK), the cloud ecommerce marketplace, announced that it has signed contracts with an Australian government service organisation for the provision of market research and spend analysis. The agreement comes after significant market entry work over the prior year which has created a pipeline of A$2.4 million (1.64 million pounds) per annum in opportunities according to the group. The shares grew by 1.125p to 9.625p. Investment fund Trading Emissions (TRE) confirmed a 31 million euros (26.13 million pounds) project financing loan has been agreed for its subsidiaries, Solar Holdings and Solar Energy Italia. The loan is being provided by a major European bank and Italian insurance and financial group SACE is guaranteeing repayment of 50% of the financing. The shares were up by 3p at 26.75p. * Office 2 Office is a corporate client of Rivington Street Holdings, the ultimate owner of UK-Analyst. | 
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