| From UK-Analyst.com: Monday 30th September 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 At the Conservative party conference in Manchester Chancellor George Osborne said that he wants to run a budget surplus during the next Parliament in a bid to "fix the roof when the sun shines". This is by no means an easy task, with the government having balanced the books only seven times during the past 50 years, the last time in 2001. Osborne also announce a raft of other plans including the freezing of fuel duty for the rest of the current parliament and work placements for the long-term unemployed in return for benefits. Elsewhere, ahead of the upcoming IPO of Royal Mail the Labour Party said it would not promise to renationalise the organisation should it regain power in 2015. Instead, according to shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna, Royal Mail would be required to deliver services through the Post Office beyond 2022, when the current agreement between the two expires. The business of the Post Office was separated from Royal Mail in April 2012, however the two firms have entered into a long-term distribution agreement under which the Post Office sells Royal Mail postage stamps and retail products to customers on behalf of Royal Mail. The Post Office branches also serve as collection points for letters and parcels for Royal Mail customers. Labour would also keep the the universal service obligation, which guarantees that letters can be sent anywhere in the UK for the same price, beyond 2015. UK-Analyst has been made aware that an unregulated financial website today suggested that the Post Office would be included as part of the Royal Mail IPO. We would like to reiterate that the Post Office is NOT being included as part of the upcoming Royal Mail share offer. To download our highly researched, independent and detailed analysis of the IPO, download our special report - Privatising the Queen's Head - by CLICKING HERE. ADVERTISEMENT Films can provide a unique and potentially lucrative investment opportunity. Earn Royalties for 25 years Opportunity to appear in a major film production as an extra or spend the day on set watching the filming A listed cast of Hollywood stars Request our free no obligation film investment brochure CLICK HERE In London the FTSE 100 closed down by 50.44 points at 6,462.22 and the FTSE 250 dropped by 16.70 points to 14,908.18. The FTSE All-Share was down by 24.42 points at 3,443.85 while the FTSE AIM Index finished down by 3.46 points at 793.26. Blue Chips Power supplier SSE (SSE) moved to reassure investors that it remains on course to achieve its principal financial objective for 2013/14 - an increase of more than RPI inflation in the dividend payable to shareholders - in the wake of Ed Miliband's reckless price controls announcement at last week's Labour Party conference. The firm said that adjusted profit before tax for the six months to 30th September 2013 is expected to be lower than it was in the same six months in 2012. It also expects to report that its Retail segment has been loss-making during the period, reflecting higher wholesale gas costs and the heightened impact of fixed distribution and other costs, which themselves were rising, during the spring and summer period of lower energy consumption. The Wholesale and Networks segments are, however, expected to have been profitable during the six months. While noting an "intensifying political debate", SSE shares rose by 6p to 1,474p.
Pharmaceuticals heavyweight GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) clinched the 700 million pound sale of its thrombosis drug brands and a related factory to Aspen Pharmacare, which follows a series of prior disposals aimed at refocusing the firm towards growth products. The divestment to South Africa's biggest generic drug maker, which was flagged by GSK in June, involves the Arixtra and Fraxiparine brands, whose worldwide sales are in decline and would otherwise have dragged on GSK's growth at a time when new drugs are set to reach the market. GSK, which retains an interest in the aforementioned products through its 18.6% stake in Aspen, said that the sale proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes. GSK shares slipped by 11p to 1,557p.
Standard Life (SL.) announced that its wealth management business Standard Life Wealth has acquired rival Newton Private Clients for an undisclosed amount. Standard Life Wealth, which has 130 staff across four offices, says the deal broadens its investment capability through the complementary but distinct investment style of Newton Private Clients and widens geographical reach. The transaction creates a private client wealth manager with 5.5 billion pounds of assets under management and 4,500 high net worth and 'ultra-high net worth' clients. The combined business will operate under the Standard Life Wealth brand. Standard Life shares dipped by 6.1p to 345.4p. Mid Caps Precision instruments specialist Spectris (SXS) has agreed to buy NanoSight, a manufacturer of instruments for the scientific analysis of nanoparticles, for a debt and cash-free net consideration of 15 million pounds, to be funded from existing cash and bank facilities. The acquired business will become part of the Materials Analysis segment and will be integrated into the Malvern Instruments arm. NanoSight's novel Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis technology provides high resolution quantitative analysis of nano-particulate materials which is said to be highly complementary to Malvern's existing measurement capabilities. Management also expect the acquisition to provide new opportunities through the combination of both companies' technologies, customer support capabilities and distribution channels. Spectris shares finished 3p lower at 2,206p.
Shares in engineering firm Keller Group (KLR) rallied by 37p to 1,039p after it bagged a contract for the construction of a diaphragm wall and bored and secant piles, worth 33 million pounds. Under the terms of the deal, the group will construct the foundation of a new Sengkang hospital project for the Singapore Ministry of Health, which will create an integrated general hospital, community hospital and specialist outpatient facilities, catering for more than 700,000 residents in the region. Keller's work is expected to begin in October and to complete in the third quarter of 2014. The contract win is the largest award to date for the Resource Piling business.
Emergency call out firm HomeServe (HSV) said its outlook for the full year remains unchanged, helped by growth at its International business and as its UK business stabilises. The group, which insures customers against burst pipes and broken boilers, said earnings in the first half of the full year 2014 are expected to be broadly in line with last year's 25.6 million pounds, albeit with the usual second-half weighting. The firm said UK customer numbers at 30th September 2013 will be around 2.2 million and reiterated its confidence of achieving full-year targets of 0.2 million gross new customers, a retention rate of over 80% and stabilising year end customer numbers at 1.9 million. In the US customer numbers in the first half of the year are expected to be around 20% higher than the same period in FY2013 and it remains on track to deliver strong growth in US operating profit for the full year. Meanwhile in France, customer and policy numbers remain stable and it continues to seek further partnerships in the country. Spain's Reparalia is expected to show a small operating profit in the first half compared to last year's loss after growth in customer numbers. Homeserve shares fell by 1p to 257p. Small Caps Shares in pawn broker Albemarle & Bond (ABM) plunged by 50.5p to 74.5p after it announced a 35 million pounds rights issue at 50p per share. The firm has suffered from the fall in the gold price since its last trading update in April, causing significant uncertainty for profits in the current financial year. In response the firm has closed 33 unprofitable pop-up gold buying stores and has been in active discussions with its lending banks over covenants on its 65 million pound facilities. A further update is expected in the next two days. Since April the gold price has fallen by around 16% to c.$1,328 an once, well short of the $2,000 level which some financial market commentators were expecting by now. Science in Sport (SIS), the sports nutrition company which recently demerged from AIM listed Provexis, said that revenues should be up by 23% at 3.95 million pounds for the six months to September. Growth has been driven by rising sales of isotonic gels, food bars and hydration tablets, as the firm has continued to invest in product innovation, sales and marketing. In addition, pre-tax profits for the period are expected to be in line with management expectations. The shares were flat at 73.5p. The Magnolia Petroleum (MAGP) share price fell by 0.05p to 2.75p after the firm announced an operations update across its portfolio of interests in the US. Highlights included an initial production rate of 549 barrels of oil per day from the JKL1-08H well in Oklahoma, in which Magnolia has a 1.719% interest. The firm's total daily production stood at 214 boepd as at 1st August. Magnolia currently has 50 new wells under development and continues to receive multiple well proposals across its 13,500 net mineral acres held in US onshore formations. ADVERTISEMENT Get free trading guides from Evil Knievil (How to successfully short stocks), Zak Mir (Top AIM market picks for 2013) and other top financial commentators by CLICKING HERE 
A trading update from TV producer DCD Media (DCD) revealed that the firm will not be producing another series of the hit TV show Bridezillas. This comes after American digital cable and satellite television WE tv did not commission an 11th series of the show. WIth the programme contributing significantly to revenues in recent year the firm expects that if not replaced by new productions revenues will be down substantially in 2014. DCD also announced an operating loss of 1.1 million pounds for the six months to June. The shares plunged by 82.5p to 710p. Also on the fall were shares in governance, risk and compliance software provider Access Intelligence (ACC) after the firm announced a profits warning. While revenues for the year to November are expected to be up by 5% at 8.4 million pounds, this is lower than market expectations. This was caused by weaker trading in one of the firm's (un-named) divisions, and is expected to result in EBITDA for the year being lower than market expectations but ahead of the previous year. Access Intelligence shares fell by 0.125p to 2.625p. Incadea (INCA), the provider of enterprise software and services to the global automotive dealership industry, has signed a 1.3 million euro agreement with an un-named German car manufacturer for a global project. Under the agreement, incadea will roll out a new implementation of incadea DMS to the German car manufacturer's dealer network in Europe, to support the car manufacturer's innovative new sales strategy. However, the shares fell by 13p to 109p after the company announced that EBITDA fell by 1.1 million euros to 0.6 million euros in the six moths to June. This was blamed on Increased investment in pre-sales activity supporting significant contract opportunities for H2, which are already well progressed. | 
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