| From UK-Analyst.com: Tuesday 2nd April 2013
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The Markets Unemployment across the Eurozone remained at a record high of 12% in February according to figures from Eurostat, the EU's statistics office. The figures also revealed that Spain and Greece continue to suffer from unemployment rates above 26%. Overall 33,000 people joined the ranks of the unemployed in the month, bringing the total people out of work across the 17 nations to 19.07 million. Separately, manufacturing across the Eurozone fell again during March as Markit's Eurozone Manufacturing PMI fell to 46.8 from 47.9 in February, extending its run below the 50 mark that separates growth and contraction to a 20th month. Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit commented "Eurozone manufacturing...looks likely to have acted as a drag on the economy in the first quarter, with an acceleration in the rate of decline in March raising the risk that the downturn may also intensify in the second quarter." Staying with manufacturing, British manufacturing activity in March contracted for a second successive month and remains a significant drag on the region's growth prospects. The Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI came in at 48.3, which represented a slight improvement on February but the reading was still weaker than expected. The manufacturing sector - which is the source of approximately 20% of British economic output - accounted for a third of the economy's 0.3% contraction in the last quarter of 2012r. James Knightley, economist at ING said, "All this still points to a very subdued economy, which will keep the pressure on the BoE (Bank of England) to do more to offset the UK's tight fiscal stance." Despite the gloomy news on the manufacturing front, the UK should avoid a triple dip recession because of a strong performance from its service industries in the first quarter of the year according to the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC). The BCC's survey of more than 7,000 firms revealed that export orders and sales in services were particularly strong - the former was boosted by a weak pound. The survey comes ahead of GDP figures for the first three months of the year which, if negative, would mean that Britain had slid into its third recession in under 5 years. The BCC's Chief Economist, David Kern, said that, "The survey reinforces our assessment that recent GDP figures published by the Office for National Statistics have exaggerated the weakness of the UK economy and the volatility in output." 
At the London close the Dow Jones was up by 103.57 points at 14,676.42 and the Nasdaq grew by 29.92 points to 2,826.99. In London the FTSE 100 was up by 78.92 points at 6,490.66; the FTSE 250 finished 133.92 points up at 14,056.96; the FTSE All-Share grew by 39.38 points to 3,420.02; and the FTSE AIM Index was up by 15.67 points at 3,315.78.  Broker Notes Panmure Gordon re-iterated its "sell" stance on fast food chain Domino's Pizza (DOM) with a target price of 360p. The broker believes that Domino's faces a very challenging Q2 UK like-for-like sales comparative of +8.1% reflecting last year being the wettest Q2 on record, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and Euro 2012. Furthermore, Panmure does acknowledge that the group is making progress with its expansion into Germany but feels that it will be at least 2015 until operations within the country move into profit. The shares rose by 17p to 619.5p. First Columbus Research retained its "buy" recommendation on marketing player LiteBulb Group (LBB) with a target price of 1.2p. The broker is encouraged with the recent acquisition of Bluwstuff and feels that it should help to lift sales by up to four-times the level achieved in 2012 as the result of a whole new set of clients, products and contacts. First Columbus envisages that the group will move into profitability this year and feels that growth could be very rapid thereafter. The shares remained unchanged at 0.64p. N+1 Singer maintained its "buy" recommendation on pork supplier Cranswick (CWK) with a target price of 1,061p. The broker believes that recent competitive woes and the furore surrounding the horse meat contamination saga should work in the group's favour in the new financial year. In addition, N+1 Singer concedes that a degree of caution is merited but on a 12 month view feels that the anticipated positive momentum is sustainable into 2014. The shares increased by 27p to 1,013p. 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 the patent which protects its Pulmicort Repulses asthma-fighting product in the US has been branded invalid by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. The impact of the decision will be confined to the US and the decision will not change AstraZeneca's revenue guidance for 2013. However, the firm conceded that the news could "materially impact" royalties received on sales of Teva's generic version of Pulmicort Repulses, an income stream which delivered $260 million (172 million pounds) in 2012. Nevertheless the shares gained 40.5p to 3,340p. Mining group Glencore (GLEN) has (again) extended the date by which it expects to finalise its merger with Xstrata, to 2nd May 2013. This is due to a prolonged investigation into the deal by the Chinese authorities. Glencore has now been waiting for several months for Chinese regulators to give the green light to the deal before it can complete the proposed $35 billion (23.14 billion pounds) acquisition of Xstrata The mining group is now adamant that the discussions with the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China are now in their final stages. The shares edged up by 3.7p to 359.8p. Energy services company Petrofac (PFC) has been awarded a $500 million (331 million pounds) engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning contract by Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company for the Satah Al Razboot project offshore Abu Dhabi. Recent broker consensus on Petrofac has been positive, with both Canaccord Genuity and Nomura retaining their "buy" recommendations on the shares last month. The shares remained flat at 1,433p. 
Mid Caps Oil producer Heritage Oil (HOIL) has agreed to farm-in two licenses onshore Papua New Guinea under a deal with LNG Energy. The two licenses relate to gross areas of approximately 2,025 and 160 square kilometres respectively and Heritage will be entitled to an 80% working interest in each license. The licensed areas are situated at the junction of the Papuan fold belt and the Miocene carbonate platform where there are multiple producing fields and discoveries including the multi-TCF Triceratops and Elk/Antelope discoveries. The shares were up by 0.7p at 179.2p. Construction firm Interserve (IRV) has secured a 3-year facilities management contract with Nuclear Power company Magnox, in a deal which is worth in excess of 80 million pounds. Under the agreement Interserve will provide a wide range of services to Magnox's power plants including mechanical and engineering maintenance, catering, cleaning and general office services. The shares jumped by 11.3p to 510.5p. Utility services provider Telecom Plus (TEP) remains confident of announcing profits in line with market expectations for the year ended 31st March 2013. The owner of the Utility Warehouse said it had benefitted from a strong quarter for distributor, customer and service numbers in the three months to March, it seeing a seventh consecutive quarter in which its service numbers have grown by more than 50,000. The firm will pay a total dividend for the year of 31p per share, up from 18p last year. The shares swelled by 34p to 1,035p.
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 Small Caps & AIM Oil and gas exploration group Sefton Resources (SER) revealed that an independent study has resulted in a ten-fold increase in the valuation estimate of its oil and gas assets in Kansas. A Competent Persons Report on the group's assets valued the future cash flows from Sefton's reserves and unproved resources in Kansas at $25.99 million (17 million pounds), a valuation 10 times higher than the $2.57 million (1.7 million pounds) which was reported at the end of 2011. However, the shares lost 0.01p to 0.6p. Edge Resources (EDG), the oil and gas producer, revealed that Asset East, the first well of the company's Spring drilling programme is producing better than expected. Edge confirmed that the well has averaged approximately 50 bopd over the majority of the initial production period, recently increasing to over 60 bopd. This current production rate is the maximum production rate allowable with the production pump at its current setting. However, the rate can be increased at any time and both pressures and fluid levels indicate further increases are feasible, according to the group. The shares were up by 1p to 14.75p.
Turbo Power Systems (TPS) has entered into an agreement with Vale Soluções em Energia to work on the initial phase of a study into subsea power distribution for the oil and gas industry in Brazil in an agreement worth 200,000 pounds. Separately, the electronic systems provider confirmed that its loan facility provided by TAO sustainable power solutions has been raised from 2.1 million pounds to 8.02 million pounds, providing extra working capital while some significant contracts remain under negotiation. The shares shot up by 0.08p to 0.49p. 
CCTV installer 21st Century Technology (C21) posted a 24% increase in pre-tax profits to 1.8 million pounds for 2012 as revenues remained steady at 14 million pounds. The group was keen to stress the success of its overseas investment programme over the year which yielded a 3.3 million pounds contract with Arriva to supply on-board CCTV and passenger counting systems for Arriva operated transport in Scandinavia. The shares moved upwards by 0.5p to 14p.  Surveillance technology group Digital Barriers (DGB) has secured a 2 million pound contract with an existing UK based customer for the provision of screening and facial recognition products. These services will be used, according to Digital Barriers, to support security operations in "remote" and "hostile" overseas locations. On the back of this news broker Investec re-iterated its "buy" recommendation on the firm with a 246p target price. The shares slid down by 7p to 178p. Outsourcer Quindell Portfolio* (QPP) has acquired Compass Costs Consultants Limited, a leading legal costs consultancy and costs drafting firm. The deal was satisfied by the issue of 80 million Quindell shares based on the agreed Compass valuation of 14 million pounds - giving an implied value of 17.5p per Quindell share. According to Quindell, the acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current year and "significantly earnings enhancing" in 2014. The shares grew by 1.25p to 11.75p. * Quindell Portfolio is a corporate client of RIvington Street Holdings, the ultimate owner of UK-Analyst. | 
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