| From UK-Analyst.com: Friday 7th June 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 Competition The UK-Analyst Friday Competition is back! For your chance to win a copy of Jim Mellon's Cracking the Code (RRP16.99) send your funniest caption for the picture of Sir Mervyn King below. Send your entry to richard.gill@t1ps.com by 9am on Monday morning. To see the video of Jim Mellon's insightful and bedazzling speech Master Investor speech - Old Money, New Problems - CLICK HERE 
The Markets According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the UK trade deficit fell by more than anticipated in April, driven by a fall in imports rather than an increase in exports. The data from the ONS shows that the deficit came down from 9.175 billion pounds in March to 8.224 billion pounds in the previous month, lower than the average analyst estimate for a gap of 8.8 billion pounds. The figures should go some way to helping the UK's gross domestic product in the second quarter as the deficit acted as a 0.1 percentage point drag on GDP growth in the first three months of the year. Ross Walker, an Economist at RBS commented, "If you look at import and export numbers on an underlying basis, much of the improvement is that imports are falling, not that exports are rising." According to figures from the U.S Labor Department, the nation's economy created 175,000 jobs in May. Despite the rise, the unemployment rate edged up from 7.5% to 7.6% as more people entered the workforce. A breakdown of the figures revealed that professional services added the most jobs, at 57,000, while the manufacturing sector lost 8,000 jobs. The data marks the third straight month that jobs, excluding work in the agricultural industry, grew by less than 200,000, a trend which could support some economists' claims that austerity is draining some momentum from the economy. Guy Berger, an economist at RBS, said on the figures, "It's progress that's too slow, but it's progress nonetheless." A survey conducted by the Bank of England (BoE) has revealed that public inflation expectations for the next 12 months held at 3.6% in May, well above the central bank's 2% inflation target. The figures may come as a surprise to members of the Monetary Policy Committee as consumer price inflation has recently cooled to 2.4%. The purpose of the survey is to predict public spending trends in the future, using current public perceptions as a guide. Alarmingly, only twice since 1999 have respondents to the survey felt that inflation was consistent with the BoE's legally mandated target at the time. 
At the London close the Dow Jones was up by 198.59 points at 15,239.21 and the Nasdaq grew by 33.02 points to 2,983.32. In London the FTSE 100 was up by 75.88 points at 6,411.99 and the FTSE 250 increased by 164.83 points to 14,005.01. The FTSE All-Share grew by 39.33 points to 3,384.56, while the FTSE AIM Index slid by 0.19 points to 719.00.  Broker Notes Panmure Gordon upgraded its "hold" stance to a "buy" recommendation on engineering consultancy Hyder Consulting (HYC), with a target price of 488p. The broker acknowledges that there are some trading headwinds in the business but feels that the firm is well positioned given its proven strategy of focusing on key customers in specialist areas. Panmure goes on to argue that the valuation of less than 10 times prospective earnings and an EV/EBITDA multiple below 5 is compelling given the quality and growth potential in the business. The shares slid by 4p to 411p. Shore Capital retained its "buy" recommendation on recruiters SThree (STHR) in response to its IMS update covering H1. The broker argues that that the combination of the focus on contract fee income, productivity and cost reductions should ensure that SThree performs well this year. However, rival broker Panmure Gordon has a different view and retained its "sell" recommendation on the group, adamant that recruitment markets are showing little sign of any real improvement. The shares fell by 16p to 339p. Beaufort Securities re-iterated its "buy" recommendation on airline operator easyJet (EZJ) with a target price of 1,184p. The broker is impressed with how cost control measures, a strong customer focus and tight operational practices enabled the company to grow at a rapid speed despite headwinds from increasing fuel costs, unfavourable currency movements and significant increases in airport taxes. Looking ahead, Beaufort believes that the potential upside could come from the allocated seating, yield improvement measures and ongoing network developments. The shares flew up by 10p to 1,194p. 
Blue-Chips Outsourcing group Serco (SRP) has been awarded a new management, operation and maintenance contract for the Tsing Sha Control Area in Hong Kong, in a deal worth 80 million pounds. As part of the deal, Serco will help with collection of tolls, traffic control and regulation, vehicle recovery and rescue, patrols and handling of incidents. Furthermore, Serco will be responsible for maintenance of bridges, buildings, tunnels, equipment, traffic signals and IT systems. The shares decreased by 3p to 592p. BG Group (BG.) confirmed the start of commercial production from a third floating production, storage and offloading vessel on the group's discoveries offshore Brazil in the pre-salt Santos Basin. The site in question is located around 300km off the coast of Brazil. Recent feeling on the company amongst brokers has been positive, with both Citigroup and Deutsche Bank re-iterating their "buy" recommendations this week. The shares edged up by 5p to 1,170p. Watch the video of UKIP leader Nigel Farage's speech at Master Investor 2013 - CLICK HERE Mid Caps Housebuilder Bellway (BWY) claimed that it has made an "encouraging" start to the new year, helped by increased demand for homes across the UK. Bellway explained that this uplift in demand is a result of the implementation of the government's "Help to Buy "scheme, which gives people access to less costly mortgages. The housebulder also highlighted the fact that the average selling price of reservations since 1st February was 200,300 pounds, some 5% higher than the same period last year. The shares were up by 19p at 1,334p. Internet communications provider KCom Group (KCOM) announced a 3.1% increase in pre-tax profits to 52.7 million pounds for the year ended 31st March despite a 3.7% fall in revenues to 372.9 million pounds. The fall in revenues was attributed to a previously disclosed one-off network build contract in the prior year of 11.7 million pounds. However, KCom's focus on the Public Services Network market allowed the it to increase profitability and, in turn, push up its dividend by 10% to 4.4p. The shares gained 6.25p, finishing the day at 83.1p. Small Caps Coms (COMS), the telecommunications provider, announced a 46% increase in revenues to 1.62 million pounds for the year ended 31st January but the after tax loss grew from 0.53 million pounds to 0.94 million pounds. A glance at the accounts shows that a hike in administrative expenses is to blame, as the group embarked on a re-organisation at the end of the period. Looking ahead, the group now intends to attract clients of all sizes as opposed to focusing all of its resources on SME's. The shares jumped by 0.35p to 2.725p. Plethora Solutions (PLE), the medical group with rights to a premature ejaculation treatment, claimed that it should have no problems in obtaining the green light to market its product in Europe. It is thought that its PSD502 treatment spray should gain formal approval from the European Medicines Agency by the end of this year. At a meeting with Ronald Openshaw, CEO, last week, it was apparent there is great confidence in the future prospects of the product, with Openshaw arguing that once branding takes place, the spray could grow to be a popular household product across Europe. The shares were down by 0.07p at 1.88p. DDD Group (DDD) announced it has licensed its TriDef 3D mobile content technology to Hampoo Science & Technology Co. Ltd for the world's first glasses-free 3D tablets for mass production. The Tridef 3D technology allows popular mobile games such as "Angry Birds" and "Blood and Glory" to be played on the three-dimensional device. The financial details of the deal were not released. The shares inched up by 0.375p to 18p. Sabien Technology Group (SNT), the energy technology group, has received further orders totalling 211,743 pounds to install its M2G boiler efficiency technology at MOD properties across the South East. The group went on to stress that a large part of these orders will be recognised as sales revenue during this financial year. On the back of the update, broker Westhouse Securities re-iterated its "buy" recommendation on the group and stuck with its 50p target price. The shares swelled by 2.5p to 27.5p. Tyre pressure sensor manufacturer Transense Technologies (TRT) has secured a c.1 million pound contract to monitor the trucks at Anglo American's Sishen iron ore mine in South Africa. The deal, which is in South African Rand, also provides (after the first year), the supply of services and consumables and is expected to yield ongoing sales of approximately 500,000 per annum. Transense also announced a 3.2 million pound placing and an offer to raise up to a further 1.05 million pounds. The placing was priced at 7.5p, significantly below yesterday's closing price of 10.8p. The shares tumbled by 2.75p to 8.25p. Mountfield Group (MOGP) , the construction support services firm, announced that it has been instructed to undertake works on the site of a new data centre for Cambridge University, where a 10,000 sq. ft. data centre facility is due to be constructed during the course of this year. Mountfield also revealed a string of other contract wins including a 1 million pound refurbishment project in Aldwych and a 275,000 pounds deal to undertake building fabric repair works for an international telecommunications group. The shares climbed by 0.2p to 1.375p. | 
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