| From UK-Analyst.com: Wednesday 3rd April 2013
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The Markets Construction output in Britain contracted in March for the third successive month. The Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) inched up to 47.2 in March from 46.8 in February, remaining below the threshold of 50 which separates expansion from contraction and slightly shy of consensus forecasts of 47.5. It is thought that the lull in underlying demand combined with the snowy weather limited new construction work over the month. Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit warned. "The negative print for construction output mirrors that seen for manufacturing, and now leaves the service sector as the last great hope for avoiding another slide in UK GDP." The rate of inflation across the Eurozone fell from 1.8% in February to 1.7% in March according to figures from Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency. The most significant inflationary pressures came in the shape of increased food, alcohol and tobacco prices, which were up by around 2.7%. The drop to 1.7% puts the inflation level below the European Central Bank's target of close to, but not above, 2% and may tempt European policy makers to cut interest rates when they meet to discuss the issue on Thursday. Thilo Heidrich, Economist at Deutsche Postbank AG reflected "On paper you could say there's room for an interest-rate cut, on the other hand you could say that would achieve nothing and would only use up some ammunition in case the debt crisis really worsens." Staying in Europe, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed that it would contribute 1 billion euros (850 million pounds) to a bailout package for Cyprus in exchange for deep reforms in the country including significant budget cuts and industry privatisations. This comes after Cyprus and "troika" - the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the IMF - eventually negotiated a 10 billion euros (8.5 billion pounds) bailout package for the debt-stricken country. Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the IMF, commented, "This is a challenging program that will require great efforts from the Cypriot population but the goal is to stand by Cyprus and the Cypriot people in helping to restore financial stability, fiscal sustainability and growth to the country and its people" 
At the London close the Dow Jones was down by 58.88 points at 14,603.13 and the Nasdaq lost 8.35 points to 2,812.27. In London the FTSE 100 was down by 70.38 points at 6,420.28; the FTSE 250 finished 96.76 points down at 13,960.20; the FTSE All-Share was down by 31.49 points to 3,388.53; and the FTSE AIM Index fell by 9.18 points to 723.74.  Broker Notes Panmure Gordon re-iterated its "buy" recommendation on budget airline Easyjet (EZJ) with a 1,250p target price. The broker is impressed with the Q1 revenue per seat growth of 8% in a result which was significantly ahead of market expectations and news which resulted in the firm increasing its H1 revenue guidance to a range of 6-8%. Looking ahead, Panmure believes that anticipated 3-5% capacity growth will allow yields to grow strongly, boosted by increased penetration of the business market amongst other factors. The shares slipped by 1p to 1,127p.. N+1 Singer maintained its "buy" recommendation on marketing group M&C Saatchi (SAA) with a 255p target price. The broker is impressed with the recent results which showed that both operating profits and revenues were up by 11% for 2012. Furthermore, N+1 Singer feels as if the group's UK business is supported by a healthy market and on this basis predicts that the strong margin gain in 2012 will continue into 2013. The shares climbed by 8p to 208p. Shore Capital retained its "buy" recommendation on Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) and envisages a good period ahead for the asset management sector in general. The broker was encouraged by recent statistics released by the Investment Management Association which revealed that Funds Under Management in the UK reached 700 billion for the first time in February. More specifically to Jupiter, Shore Capital points to the fact that the shares are trading on 12.5 times forecast 2014 earnings, with an implied 4% yield - not expensive at all when held up against the rest of the sector. The shares slipped by 2.2p to 329.8p. 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 giant SSE (SSE) has accepted a 10.5 million pounds fine from regulatory body OFGEM in relation to the way it carried out its sales process between October 2009 and July 2011. In particular SSE has been penalised for falsely informing customers that they would save money when they were in fact being switched to more expensive contracts. The group was also accused of wrongly claiming that other energy companies had put their tariffs up by more than was true. SSE went on to apologise to any customers that were adversely affected by this sales activity which "ran counter to the values and culture of the company." The shares were up by 4p to 1,511p. Engineering services group Babcock (BAB) expects trading for the year ended 31st March 2013 to be in line with expectations and that "strong progress" has been made on the previous year. The group's performance in the second half of its financial year was boosted by significant contracts secured with British Airways and significant contract wins from its marine division. The update prompted brokers Liberium Capital and Westhouse Securities to retain their "hold" recommendations on the shares. The shares lost 10p to 1,093p. Banking group HSBC (HSBA) will sell its Singapore-based insurance businesses to AXA Life Insurance Singapore in a deal worth around $19.3 million (12.77 million pounds). The agreement is in line with HSBC's strategy of streamlining its global operations in an attempt to cut costs after it set out a target in 2011 of saving $3.5 billion (2.31 billion pounds) by the end of this year, as well as shedding 30,000 jobs worldwide. The shares were down by 9.7p at 701.5p.
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Mid Caps Construction group Interserve (IRV) has agreed a deal to develop the Haymarket area of Edinburgh into a mixed-use site which will incorporate commercial offices, retail units, hotel accommodation and underground parking. It is thought that the development could create up to 3,500 jobs with food chains such as Prezzo and Pret A Manger already committed to having a presence on the site when completed. Interserve will initially invest 10.5 million pounds in the project with the follow on construction works to a value of 150 million pounds being undertaken by Interserve Construction. The shares fell by 21.2p to 489.3p. Small Caps & AIM Outsourcing firm Quindell Portfolio* (QPP) has entered into a 5 year contract with motor insurance group RAC to provide software, consultancy and technology enabled outsourcing services. The contract win follows an initial pilot period which resulted in an improvement of more than 50% on customer conversion rates for RAC. Quindell went on to claim that it now has the visibility of outsourcing volumes required to meet the market's current full year revenue expectations for 2013. The shares gained 1.375p to close at 13.125p. Security services group Croma Securities (CSSG) has secured a major contract renewal with a large London based property agent. The renewal period is 3 years and the deal is worth 3.4 million pounds. The news comes just weeks after the group announced a 57% increase in revenues for the 6 months ended 31st December 2012 and almost a doubling of gross profits to 1.75 million pounds. The shares gained 3p to 30p. Mining outfit Beowulf Mining (BEM) revealed that the JORC compliant tonnage at its Kallak North iron ore deposit in northern Sweden has been upgraded by just shy of 10% to 144 million tonnes, with a substantial amount of resource now classified as "indicated". Of the 144 million tonnes in-situ, 88.8Mt is in the indicated category grading 27.7% iron, while 55.3Mt are now classified as inferred at 28.2% Fe. The shares slid by 2.5p to 9.5p. 
Risk management software providers Active Risk Group (ARI) expects to record a pre-tax profit of between 0.3 million pounds and 0.4 million pounds for the six months ended 31st March 2013. This would represent a stark turnaround from the 0.7 million pounds loss which was recorded for the previous 6 months. Active Risk Group attributed this turnaround to a strong start to 2013 coupled with significant cost reductions in a trend which the group expects to continue into the next financial year. The shares rose by 4p to 17p. . Oil exploration firm Roxi Petroleum (RXP) has spudded a well on the MJ-F structure of the South Yelemes field in Kazakhstan. The primary target is the Jurassic Callovian sands at 2,170 metres, while the secondary target is the Cretaceous Valanginian limestone at 1,935 metres. The well- the first of four planned for the BNG contract area this year - was spudded on the first of this month and is expected to take in the region of 45 days to reach its target depth of 2,500 metres. The shares remained flat at 3.875p. Business software suppliers Bond International Software (BDI) posted pre-tax profits of 558,000 pounds for 2012, swinging from a 1.4 million pounds loss in 2011. The improvement was boosted by a 5% increase in recurring revenues to 23.6 million pounds, while administrative costs were cut by 4% as the group decided to combine its three US businesses into one entity. The shares increased by 7.5p to 53p. * Quindell Portfolio is a corporate client of Rivington Street Holdings, the ultimate owner of UK-Analyst. | 
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