| From UK-Analyst.com: Tuesday 12th November 2013 The Markets UK inflation hit a 13 month-low in October as consumer price inflation fell to an annual rate of 2.2%, down from 2.7% in September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Although the fall confounds the Bank of England's estimates for an increase to 2.8%, the new figure still outstrips wage growth, meaning that people within the UK will continue to feel the pinch. A breakdown of the figures reveals that the drop in inflation was driven by falls in petrol prices and other transport costs, as well as technical effects related to a multi-year programme of university tuition fee rises. Capital Economics analyst Martin Beck argued, "October's inflation data suggests that the UK economy is hitting a sweet spot of accelerating growth and falling inflation." A further release by the ONS revealed that house prices across the UK dropped slightly in November. The ONS's house price index fell from 186 in October to 184.9 in November, perhaps dampening concerns of the formation of a new housing bubble in some circles. However, when compared with a year earlier, annual price inflation rose from 3.7% in August to 3.8% in September and experts still believe that the long-term property price trend remains on an upwards trajectory. Howard Archer, the Chief UK Economist of IHS Global Insight, said, "[the data] reported by the Office for National Statistics will likely do little to ease concerns that we could be headed for a new housing market bubble." At the London close the Dow Jones was down by 19.50 points at 15,763.60 and the Nasdaq was up by 1.65 points at 3,364.63. In London the FTSE 100 closed down by 1.58 points at 6,726.79 and the FTSE 250 was down by 51.28 points at 15,369.08. The FTSE All-Share was down by 2.33 points at 3.579.87 while the FTSE AIM Index slid by 2.24 points to 808.70. ADVERTISEMENT 
Broker Notes Cannacord Genuity downgraded its "buy" recommendation to a "hold" stance on life and pensions group Chesnara (CSN), increasing its target price to 300p. The move comes after the company recently received shareholder approval for the acquisition of Direct Line Life. The broker has re-run its numbers to account for the acquisition and increased its price target to 300 pence per share. However, with the shares already trading at around the 3 pound mark, the shares offer little in terms of upside potential in the eyes of Canaccord. The shares were down by 1.5p at 302p. Panmure Gordon lowered its "buy" recommendation to a "hold" stance on drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), cutting its target price from 1,850p to 1,651p. The broker makes the move following news this morning that product candidate darapaldib failed to reach its primary end-point in a phase III trial. Panmure does acknowledge that there is another trial to come next year but feels that it will be difficult to gain market registration on one trial alone. The shares fell by 13p to 1,637.5p. Shore Capital retained its "buy" recommendation on retailer Marks and Spencer (MKS) after the company announced it has further advanced its programme of internationalisation through the decision to target the opening of 80 stores in India by 2016. Shore Capital is impressed with these plans and feels that the expansion offers a relatively "capital light" way of further tapping into the potentially lucrative Indian market. The shares slipped by 1.2p to 498.1p. Blue Chips Building materials group CRH (CRH) delivered a 2% increase in like-for-like sales over the July-September quarter and said that it is in line to meet its expectations for the second half of the year. The period was peppered with acquisition activity as CRH completed six deals, which brought total acquisition spending for the year up to 660 million euros (395.73 million pounds). The update comes after Deutsche Bank re-iterated its "buy" recommendation on the shares last week. The shares swelled by 50p to 1,609p. The world's second largest mobile operator Vodafone (VOD) announced a 1.6% decline in organic revenues over the 6 months ended 30th September as trading conditions remain tough in Europe. As a result of the underwhelming performance, Vodafone has pledged to invest 7 billion pounds on its networks in a bid to modernise its infrastructure to meet the growing demand of people who would like to access the internet via their smartphones or tablets. The shares grew by 3.9p to 231.25p. Engineer Babcock (BAB) announced a 9% increase in revenues to 1,700.6 million pounds for the 6 months ended 30th September, while pre-tax profits grew by 17% to 141.7 million pounds. In somewhat of a paradox, Babcock said it was in an ideal position to prosper against the backdrop of austerity and financial constraint as its customers look for efficiencies which it can provide. On the back of this period of relative success, management has decided to increase the interim dividend by 10% to 6.9p per share. The shares increased by 15p to 1,306p. ADVERTISEMENT
Mid Caps Telecoms provider TalkTalk Telecom (TALK) boasted that it now has the fastest growing TV business in the UK and that it now expects to have nearly 1 million customers by the end of 2014. Its headline EBITDA figure was 76 million pounds for the 6 months ended 30th September, down on the 147 million pounds which was generated in the prior year period. However, this shortfall was due to an 86 million pounds investment in scaling new products. The update comes a day after Goldman Sachs maintained its "buy" recommendation and 310p target price on the company. The shares were up by 25.5p to 275.4p. Aviation and distribution group John Menzies (MNZS) conceded that current year results will come in slightly lower than expected because of "difficult" trading conditions within its distribution businesses. Despite this disappointment, John Menzies pledged to deliver growth over the long term, arguing that despite the current market headwinds, it is well placed and appropriately financed to deliver further shareholder value. The shares slipped by 52.5p to 767p. Industrial tool manufacturer Oxford Instruments (OXIG) has made an offer worth around 159 million pounds to acquire Andor Technology - a manufacturer of specialised cameras and microscopes. The 500p per share offer represents a 25% premium to Andor's closing price yesterday and has been made, according to Oxford, because Andor's product portfolio is highly complementary to Oxford Instruments' Nanotechnology Tools division. Separately, the firm revealed that both revenues and pre-tax profits were both marginally down over the 6 months ended 30th September at 166.3 million pounds and 20.6 million pounds respectively. The shares surged by 198p to 1,425p. Small Caps Consulting firm Savile Group (SAVG) has agreed to be acquired by Penna Consulting in a deal worth around 1.1 million pounds. In a joint statement, Penna and Savile revealed they had agreed a deal which will give Savile shareholders seven pence a share in cash, more than double Savile's closing share price of 3.25p per share yesterday. The news came at the same time as Savile reported revenue of 8.11 million pounds for the year to the end of June, up from 7.4 million pounds a year earlier, while its pre-tax loss widened to 326,000 pounds from 92,000 pounds. The shares soared by 3.25p to 6.5p. Paper specialist James Cropper (CRPR) reported a pre-tax profit of 216,000 pounds for the six months to 30th September 2013, down from the 1 million pounds which was generated in the same period last year. This squeeze in profitability came about despite an 8.5% increase in revenues to 42.3 million pounds. The company attributed the shortfall in profits to additional "green" levies, higher energy costs and the rising price of pulp. In response to the update, Westhouse Securities downgraded its "buy" recommendation to "add" and increased its target price from 350p to 450p. The shares plummeted by 42.5p to 350p. Cluff Natural Resources (CNR), an entity which acquires and invests in oil and gas mining projects, has raised 2 million pounds through a placing of 66.7 million shares at a price of 3 pence per share - a 29% discount to yesterday's closing price. Cluff, which owns an estimated 1.75 billion tonne coal portfolio, said it would use the money to progress the five Deep UCG licences it secured in the UK this year. The shares fell by 0.75p to 3.125p. Mining player Sovereign Mines of Africa (SMA) has secured a new exploration concession in Guinea, allowing the company to mine an extension of a gold mineralisation area that forms the main part of its existing gold resource. Management argued that the new concession has the potential to be transformational for the project and could well provide the "missing piece" to the jig-saw at the Mandiana-Magana site. The shares gained 0.375p, finishing the day at 3p. Product design group Sagentia (SAG) announced that trading since the beginning of July has been consistent with original management expectations, with the integration of recently acquired OTM Consulting Limited apparently going well. Separately, the firm revealed that group Finance Director Neil Elton has decided to leave the company to pursue other challenges. His replacement will be Rebecca Anne Hemsted, who is currently Business Finance Partner for the Managed Services Business of RM plc. The shares crept upwards by 1p to 152p. Accesso Technology (ACSO), a company which specialises in technology which improves the customer experience at attraction parks, said that the company delivered significant growth across all metrics over the year ended 3rd November. The company, formerly named Lo-Q, said that good summer weather had helped to drive group revenue upwards by 29% over the period as more visitors came to the attractions from which it operates. The shares were up by 5p at 685p. ADVERTISEMENT
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