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But it later recouped some of its losses as investors tried to figure out if this is the start of a worldwide crash or simply a short-lived major correction.

Stock markets around the world continued to register big falls, with all the major Asian bourses except China’s suffering heavy losses. The region’s biggest stock market, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, witnessed heavy selling with the Nikkei 225 closing down 515.80 points at 17,604.12.

In Australia, heavyweight mining stocks which are closely tied into the Chinese economic boom, dragged Sydney’s major index, the S&P/ASX2 - down 161.3 at 5832.5, while similar falls were recorded in New Zealand and Singapore. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 496.36 to close at 19,651.51.

However, this may not trigger further panicked selling in Europe. Analysts said in several cases the Asian markets were just playing catch-up with the US, where the Dow Jones plunged 416.10 points to 12216.20 overnight, its worst day of losses since 9/11.

Ecouragingly, the situation in China, where the sell-off started, seemed to have eased, with the Shanghai Composite index closing 109.28 points up at 2881.07, up 3.9%.

This will strengthen the viewpoint of many analysts that what happened yesterday was simply a big correction - a response to the incredible rises in global stocks witnessed since the summer.

That was the message equity strategist Mike Lenhoff at broker was pushing today. Looking at the recovery in China, he said: ‘I am relieved to see at least one market is showing signs of stability. I suspect that what we are seeing is a sell-off, obviously it is quite a violent sell-off but you’ve got to put it in perspective.

Most of these markets have been going in one direction since the summer without any period of consolidation or profit-taking. You have to look at the fundamentals of the market and ask whether they remain sold. If you look at earnings, value, and outlook they all remain quite sound. I think it is a big sell-off and in time will prove to be a major buying opportunity.’

Even in the US where, due to a technical hold-up, the Dow Jones plunged by 300 points in two minutes in midafternoon trading, analysts were relatively-sanguine. ‘This corrective consolidation phase isn’t just going to be one day but we don’t believe this is going to be a ,’ said Bob Doll, global chief investment officer for at BlackRock.

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In London the FTSE 100 was down 92.3 points at 6193.8 by 09.45, with financial and property companies the worst affected shares.

, which is badly exposed to the US housing market, was 33 points lower at 1285p while City landlord was 42p lower at 1488p.

High Street bank HBOSslipped 31p to 1100p despite topping analysts’ expectationsby around 2%, with much of the momentum coming from corporate banking. Analysts suggested they may well revise their estimates for the current year upwards by between 1% and -2% after they have had a chance to digest the figures.

Just a handful of blue-chips showed gains. Guinness brewer Diageowas 8p ahead at 1028p while Gallaherwas p up at 1128p.

Engineer was lumbered with a downgrade from which has stuck with a target of 285p but cut its rating from buy to hold. It thinks that speculation about privateequity interest has bloated its current share price but concedes that yesterday’s results were strong.

The broker highlights the group’s upbeat outlook and notes that sales even grew in weak automotive end markets.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 8:08 pm and is filed under stocks. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

US investment bank JPMorgan has told clients it believes sales targets for Astra’s Nexium and Crestor are too high. ‘The little purple pill’, as Nexium is known, is often used in the treatment of heartburn, while Crestor is used to reduce high cholesterol.

Both drugs achieve high sales in the lucrative US market but JPM has warned that expectations for America in particular, are running too high. A 10% shortfall on US sales of Nexium is the equivalent of a 3% hit on overall group operating profits.

Crestor has been achieving year-onyear sales volume growth of more than 50%, but JPM says the after-effects of testimony from the US Food and Drug Administration’s David Graham are still trickling down, while month-onmonth prescription trends show little growth.

The bank says the consensus of 20% for compound annual growth over the next five years for US sales of Crestor is too optimistic. As a result, Astra-Zeneca remains JPM’s least favourite drugs company, so it is sticking with its neutral rating.

Its comments will come as a fresh blow to an industry that has been under attack from cheap generic competition-failed drugs and various court actions. The shares later recovered to trade 4p better at 2830p.

Share prices generally continued to trade within a narrow range in the wake of gains on Wall Street overnight. The FTSE 100 index was 21.0 points down to 6221.0.

Total turnover was boosted by Tata Steel’s successful takeover of Corus, up 39p at 602p. More than 230m Corus shares changed hands in the first hour of trading after Tata’s overnight auction-winning offer of 608p a share pipped Brazilian steel group CSR.

Vodafone was another firm market rising 2p to 149p on the back of stronger-than-expected customer growth numbers. Goldman Sachs has repeated its buy rating of the mobile phones giant which says it has signed up almost ninem new customers.

The news from Corus and Vodafone offset disappointing trading updates from Friends Provident, 5p off at 220p, and satellite broadcaster BSkyB, down 5p at 540p.

Shares of F&C Asset Management slumped 44p to 163p after it admitted investors had been pulling their money out and that it would be forced to rebase the . Funds under management in 2006 slumped from 131bn to 104 billion. Most of the withdrawals were made by Dutch investors.

Rio Tinto, 1p cheaper at 2726p, has been upgraded from sell to hold by broker SG Securities as part of a review of the mining sector, with BHP Billiton, up 2p at 953p, initiated as buy while Xstrata, 24p dearer at 2382p, was started with a sell recommendation, dealers said. SG Securities argued that the overall long-term prospects for mining stocks looks positive, but noted it was cautious on the commodities ’super-cycle’ thesis.

Everything was on hold overnight in New York pending the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s regular policy meeting. Hopes of an early cut in interest rates to offset the effects of a slowdown in company earnings growth, have been pared back in recent weeks. News of a rise in consumer confidence had little impact on sentiment and the Dow closed up 32.53 at 12,523.31.

In Tokyo today, investors suffered a double whammy after both Sony and TDK failed to raise their profit forecasts. The Nikkei 225 ended the day 106.77 lower at 17,383.42.

In Hong Kong, shares were also in retreat, worried by growing speculation that China may take steps to slow its fast-growing economy. The Hang Seng index finished the day down 354.04 at 20,106.42, a two-week low.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 2:06 pm and is filed under stocks. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

City speculators sprang a leak amid claims that private-equity outfit Cinven has been pondering a 10bn takeover of the group for the past three months along with the US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Only last month, Wolseley, which owns Plumb Center and Build Center, warned the slowdown in the US housing market and the weakness of the dollar was putting margins under pressure. The US makes the single biggest contribution to group profits and has paved the way for 10 successive years of profits growth.

A strong performance on Wall Street overnight and rising share prices in Asia this morning spilled over into London. The FTSE 100 index rose 19.1 to a new six-year high of 6400.9.

Among blue-chips, firmed 2p to 439p after Credit Suisse raised its price target from 400p to 500p. The broker says the food retailer’s US west coast roll-out could signal a big expansion programme and provide the staple diet for future profits growth.

rose 7p to 782p after repeated its buy rating on the shares and jacked up its target from 825p to 900p ahead of full-year results next week.

traded at record high a following a rise of 12p to 1310p on the back of reports that it may be about to return more than 800m. or 225p a share, to shareholders as part of a 3bn asset sell-off. Such a move will come as good news to the billionaire Barclay brothers, who recently increased their stake in the company to 5%.

Full-year numbers from InterContinental are due out next week and are also expected to contain plans to sell the group’s remaining 25 hotels.

Computer software company , which is behind the farce that is the new NHS computer system, may be in more trouble. Word is, talks it was having with a buyer for the company have been put on hold. This may force Isoft to turn to shareholders for the extra cash it badly needs - the same shareholders who saw the share price collapse from a peak of 395p last year following a series of profit warnings and accounting irregularities that wiped out most of its profits.

Today iSoft was trading 2p lower at 50p amid mounting speculation that McKesson, the company tipped to buy iSoft, has fallen out with the lead NHS contractor Computer Sciences Corporation. Apparently, the two sides have failed to agree about certain contract conditions that McKesson wants included as part of any deal.

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In New York overnight, investors had plenty of food for thought and share prices posted strong gains. Sentiment was bolstered by continuing speculation about a bid for aluminium producer by one of the big mining companies and set tongues wagging after its moved from sell to buy on . Oil shares also enjoyed renewed support after oil prices rebounded on world markets.

Whispers in financial markets yesterday claimed and were shaping up to battle for control of Alcoa. Word is both sides are pondering offers in excess of $40bn. Alcoa shares were marked sharply higher, despite Lehman Brothers saying a deal was unlikely.

The Dow finished the session up 102.30 at 12,654.85.

In Tokyo today, share prices rose to their highest in seven years - the fourth consecutive day of gains. Investors drew encouragement from , which raised its earnings forecast, while Sony rose on plans to curb its spending on microchips. The Nikkei 225 closed 131.19 higher at 17,752.64.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index ended the day up 77.66 at 20,209.91.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 11:02 am and is filed under . You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved its Lialda treatment for ulcerated colitis after successful phase three trials. Lialda can be taken orally on a daily basis by patients with active, mild and moderate forms of the illness.

It is the first treatment of its kind to be approved by the FDA and, says US broker , could notch up sales of $150m (77m) annually by 2010.

Lialda will be competing against the likes of Procter & Gamble’s Asacol and Salix’s Colazide, but Citigroup says it is the first once-daily treatment and also the only one to have the induction of a remission label on top of symptom treatment.

Citigroup told clients today: ‘The key date on the horizon is FDA approval of NRP101 in late February, and full-year results are on 21 February. is likely to move to the top of the sector’s mergers and acquisitions list once through February.’

It continues to rate the shares a buy with a 1200p target. They responded with a rise of 14p to 1098p, just 6p below their record high.

Shares saw thin trading, and despite gains on Wall Street overnight and in the Far East this morning, the FTSE 100 index fell 9.6 points to 6206.1.

The banks came under early selling pressure after a downgrading of the sector by Swiss broker . It has cut , down 16p at 2016p, from buy to neutral and reduced , off 7p at 583p, from neutral to reduce because it reckons they look too expensive.

RBS has rallied 23% since reaching a low point in July, which has brought it into line with traditional sector multiples. The broker says Lloyds TSB is now sitting at the top of its five-year , and it sees little scope for short-term improvement in the shares. The group may look to make acquisitions this year to get things going.

The City gave the thumbs-down to a trading update from electrical retailer and marked the shares 16p lower at 177p. , on the other hand, turned out to be better than expected in the wake of last month’s profits warning and the shares ticked p better to 34p.

Advertising giant responded to an upgrading by Credit Suisse with a rise of 8p to 743p. The broker has raised the shares from neutral to and jacked up its target price from 700p to 800p.

Share prices recovered from a slow start in New York overnight with the help of lower oil prices on world markets after Saudi Arabia rejected calls to talk about production cuts.

Investors also focused on earnings numbers from blue-chip companies, including microchip maker which failed to impress. Others reporting this week include Apple, , JPMorgan, Continental, , Citigroup and GE. Shares saw their gains pared back late in the session and at the close the Dow was up 26.51 at 12,582.59.

That did not prevent share prices in Asia trading higher this morning as investors got charged up. In Tokyo, speculation about an imminent rise in interest rates appeared to be fading. Property companies were marked higher as a result, and this helped offset losses in the banking, where share prices were depressed by the absence of dearer money.

Hi-tech companies came under the hammer after Intel’s trading update, with the likes of losing ground, but they later steadied with the appearance of a few bargain hunters. The Nikkei 225 closed up 58.89 at 17,261.35.

The buying spilled over into Hong Kong, with the focus on sectors that have been left behind of late. The Hang Seng index ended the day up 36.62 at 20,064.57.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 11th, 2007 at 12:02 am and is filed under . You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

The PC World and Currys company slipped 1p to 170p today after broker Securities slashed its profit forecast for the current year by 15m to 320m and by even bigger sums further out.

The DSG share price slumped last week after it reported a rise in total sales and same-store sales in the eight weeks to 6 January, of just 3%. Problems with PC City in France and continued trouble in Italy painted a bleak outlook for the group.

Investec points out that margins were down 0.7% in the second half to date and this, combined with the problems at PC City and in Italy, prompted the broker to slash its forecast.

The is thinly covered, but given the strong balance sheet it remains pretty secure. But overall Investec is cautious about prospects for the group. There is scope for improvement in profits over the next few years but if underlying markets flatten out, that may prove to be too optimistic, the broker warns.

Elsewhere, share prices ticked better after positive performances overnight on Wall Street and in Asia this morning. The FTSE 100 index rose 63.2 to 6290.8.

Mining shares made much of the early running, helped by firmer commodity prices and an upgrading of the sector by broker Credit Suisse. rose 69p to 2402p, 30p to 1098p, 9p to 469p and 57p to 2717p.

, up 8p at 657p, and , 1p better at 188p, have been upgraded from neutral to by Credit Suisse, while , 1p off at 163p, has been cut to in the support services sector.

Credit Suisse saidmanufacturing migration continues to present a major opportunity for the testing services and freight forwarding sectors.

Aim-listed drugmaker ReNeuron’s shares dipped p to 45p despite being awarded a research grant from the Parkinson’s Disease foundation of Hollywood actor Michael J Fox, star of the Back to the films.

The size of the grant has not been disclosed but it will fund the group’s ReN004 stem cell programme during the next year. It will also allow to build on its pre-clinical data showing ReN004 has the potential to reverse the effects of Parkinson’s and to develop a biodegradable delivery system to implant the stem cells in Parkinson’s patients.

fell 8p to 155p after announcing plans to raise 30.4m via a two-for-seven rights issue at 130p. The care home provider wants the cash to pay for a proposed acquisition-strategy by its Social Care business. The issue has been underwritten.

In New York overnight, positive news on the earnings front enabled share prices to claw back some of the previous day’s losses. That said, the poor showing in the third quarter and the fact that earnings in the final quarter-have also failed to live up to expectations have made investors wary.

Results from housebuilders Toll Brothers and DR Horton boosted sentiment in a sector where expectations remain at low ebb because of the downturn in the US housing. Betterthanexpected earnings from Texas Instruments also gave some weight to the technology sector. In the event, the Dow Jones closed 56.64 up at 12,533.80.

In Tokyo today, the Nikkei 225 finished at a new nine-month high, up 98.83 at 17,507.40. The weaker yen is proving good news for Japan’s exporters such as , and hopes are high they will use the currency to help boost earnings.

In Hong Kong the Hang Seng index ended the day up 51.35 at a new record high of 20,821.05 following a strong mark-up of stocks.

———————-

TAKING STOCK: Sectors at-a-glance

BANKING AND FINANCE
Insurance broker faces a loss of business from the introduction of the state-sponsored catastrophe fund in Florida. Goldman Sachs says the move could take 36p off its target for the share price by reducing Florida’s property catastrophe reinsurance market. After the recent share price fall, Goldman has downgraded from buy to neutral.

BUILDING AND PROPERTY
Goldman Sachs has upgraded the US housebuilding sector to neutral, saying the rate of decline in the housing market may be slowing. The fundamentals remain troubled and investors may have to wait until 2008 before seeing any improvement. The market has been hit by falling prices and sales, due to lower demand.

CONSUMER
says Tate & Lyle’s previous bullishness was misplaced, and has downgraded the shares from buy to hold, cutting its 2007 earnings forecast by 4% to 46.4p a share. The broker warns it is hard to see why sucralose sales should increase materially beyond 2007, and fully utilising the new Singapore plant looks ambitious.

ENGINEERING
Pratt & Whitney jet engines-to-Otis lifts group attracted a rush of positive brokers’ comments after beating profit forecasts. Fourthquarter profits were $865m (437m) against $626m a year earlier, fuelled by strong aviation electronics demand. Its Sikorsky helicopters arm had some problems, however.

HEALTH
Goldman Sachs reckons Smith & Nephew’s failure to secure a deal with US rival could work in its favour. The broker argues that S&N may now be forced to improve its own cost and capital structure in order to pre-empt being taken over. Goldman has raised its target from 470p to 580p but keeps the shares at neutral.

INDUSTRIALS
Defence contractor traded at record highs after posting solid fullyear profits and highlighting a strong order book. KBC Peel Hunt has repeated its buy rating on Chemring, and still sees the group as a potential takeover target. expects to raise its forecast, and has put its add rating and 1745p target under review.

LEISURE
has repeated its buy rating on , the Aim-listed designer and developer of software for the gaming industry. It comes on the back of news that Playtech’s Videobet subsidiary has signed a contract with Mexican casinos operator Entretenimiento de Mexico, which has 4000 video slot machines.

MEDIA
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has joined the Chandler family, whose forebears built up the Los Angeles Times, in its bid to buy newspaper and TV company Tribune. Murdoch’s main aim is to cut printing and back-office costs at the lossmaking New York Post. His plan is to buy a stake in New York’s Newsday newspaper, owned by Tribune.

NATURAL RESOURCES
Bridgewell has repeated its buy rating on following a 41% increase in oil reserves at its Kiev-Eganskoye Field in Siberia to 321 million barrels. Imperial has also appointed and ABN Amro Hoare Govett as joint brokers prior to the listing of its shares on the main market.

RETAIL
held up relatively well despite concerns the Competition Commission might single out the UK’s biggest food retail for special attention following its inquiry about unfair practices. Dresdner Kleinwort has kept its hold rating on Tesco, noting the Commission had not found any major issues regarding planning or land banks.

SUPPORT SERVICES
Merrill Lynch reckons shares of Group are too expensive, and has cut them from neutral to sell. It blames margin pressure in UK textiles, and estimates fair value at 508p. But Davis operates in a low-growth, capital-intensive industry dominated by large, price-sensitive clients such as hotels and hospitals.

TECHNOLOGY
Computer services group failed to impress with its 2006 trading update. Credit Suisse described its performance as ’simply not good enough’. The main problem has been the lack of suitably qualified staff to meet customer demand, and tight labour markets. The broker has repeated its outperform rating.

TELECOMS
Buying of shares by directors gave a boost. Tony Rice has bought an extra 300,000 shares at 1601/4p, for a total of 480,750, stretching his holding to three million shares, or less than 1% of the company. John Pluthero has bought a further 62,402 shares and now holds 1.06m.

TRANSPORT
Some positive news at last for European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie. It says it has received a firm order for 30 of the versatile twin-engined A319s from Spirit Airlines. It added that deliveries of the 144-seat planes to the Florida-based airline would take place between October 2009 and the middle of 2013.

UTILITIES
Bid speculation that carried higher last year has evaporated. Russia’s Gazprom was seen as a buyer for the group in order to establish a foothold in the UK. Despite the absence of a bid, broker believes the shares still have life. It has repeated its buy rating and set a 400p target.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 3:22 am and is filed under . You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

US investment bank JPMorgan has told clients it believes sales targets for Astra’s Nexium and Crestor are too high. ‘The little purple pill’, as Nexium is known, is often used in the treatment of heartburn, while Crestor is used to reduce high cholesterol.

Both drugs achieve high sales in the lucrative US market but JPM has warned that expectations for America in particular, are running too high. A 10% shortfall on US sales of Nexium is the equivalent of a 3% hit on overall group operating profits.

Crestor has been achieving year-onyear sales volume growth of more than 50%, but JPM says the after-effects of testimony from the US Food and Drug Administration’s David Graham are still trickling down, while month-onmonth prescription trends show little growth.

The bank says the consensus of 20% for compound annual growth over the next five years for US sales of Crestor is too optimistic. As a result, Astra-Zeneca remains JPM’s least favourite drugs company, so it is sticking with its neutral rating.

Its comments will come as a fresh blow to an industry that has been under attack from cheap generic competition-failed drugs and various court actions. The shares later recovered to trade 4p better at 2830p.

Share prices generally continued to trade within a narrow range in the wake of gains on Wall Street overnight. The FTSE 100 index was 21.0 points down to 6221.0.

Total turnover was boosted by Tata Steel’s successful takeover of Corus, up 39p at 602p. More than 230m Corus shares changed hands in the first hour of trading after Tata’s overnight auction-winning offer of 608p a share pipped Brazilian steel group CSR.

Vodafone was another firm market rising 2p to 149p on the back of stronger-than-expected customer growth numbers. Goldman Sachs has repeated its buy rating of the mobile phones giant which says it has signed up almost ninem new customers.

The news from Corus and Vodafone offset disappointing trading updates from Friends Provident, 5p off at 220p, and satellite broadcaster BSkyB, down 5p at 540p.

Shares of F&C Asset Management slumped 44p to 163p after it admitted investors had been pulling their money out and that it would be forced to rebase the . Funds under management in 2006 slumped from 131bn to 104 billion. Most of the withdrawals were made by Dutch investors.

Rio Tinto, 1p cheaper at 2726p, has been upgraded from sell to hold by broker SG Securities as part of a review of the mining sector, with BHP Billiton, up 2p at 953p, initiated as buy while Xstrata, 24p dearer at 2382p, was started with a sell recommendation, dealers said. SG Securities argued that the overall long-term prospects for mining stocks looks positive, but noted it was cautious on the commodities ’super-cycle’ thesis.

Everything was on hold overnight in New York pending the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s regular policy meeting. Hopes of an early cut in interest rates to offset the effects of a slowdown in company earnings growth, have been pared back in recent weeks. News of a rise in consumer confidence had little impact on sentiment and the Dow closed up 32.53 at 12,523.31.

In Tokyo today, investors suffered a double whammy after both Sony and TDK failed to raise their profit forecasts. The Nikkei 225 ended the day 106.77 lower at 17,383.42.

In Hong Kong, shares were also in retreat, worried by growing speculation that China may take steps to slow its fast-growing economy. The Hang Seng index finished the day down 354.04 at 20,106.42, a two-week low.

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India’s Tata wins race for Corus
The three supercasino winners
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UK giants in the foreign takeover spotlight

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 5:53 am and is filed under . You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

That was the message issued today by Deutsche Bank which lifted shares in the publisher of Penguin books and the Financial Times 1p to 772p. These days 70% of Pearson’s profits come from education businesses and that could signal that the ‘for sale’ sign will finally go up at the Pink ‘Un.

Education is a growth market that Deutsche says is enjoying something of a ’sweet spot’ and now is the time to deliver. As a result, its has raised its rating on the shares from hold to buy and hiked its 12-month price target by a hefty 160p to 870p.

Deutsche says current political trends support Pearson’s key education assets and technology drive. The company has invested heavily in new technologies, suggesting this should pay off and drive a ‘ peerleading performance’.

‘The company should push harder on margin and could restructure by means of selling off its newspapers, enabling it to significantly re-lever,’ says Deutsche. This would provide a 15% improvement to its current 2008 forecasts.

Failure to deliver could spell the end for Scardino, warns Deutsche. ‘In the past decade she has delivered 4% earnings compound annual growth rate, against a double digit promise. Shareholders will not stand for failure now’.

A big sell-off in the Far East this morning amid further evidence of a slowdown in the global economy, spilled over into London this morning and left the FTSE 100 index 43.8 down at 6152.3.

has been taking a peek at the European drugs sector and napped Roche and Merck as its picks for 2007 with the UK’s , down 7p at 1353p, its wild card.

It still likes , 1p lighter at 536p, and repeated its buy rating while lifting its sights on the shares from 550p to 600p. But , down 16p at 2790p, fails to impress the US broker, which has cut its target from 3400p to 3100p.

Housebuilder is lopping $40m (20.6m) off the value of its US land bank, a market that accounts for roughly half of the company’s business.

But a strong UK new homes market still allowed Woodrow to tell brokers today that 2006 results would come in at the top end of expectations, meaning pre-tax profits of around 395m.

Chief executive Ian Smith, who joined the board only last week, is sitting on UK forward orders worth 534m. up 30% on last year with margins for the full year ahead of those made in the first half.

America ,however, is a different story with the order book down 39.9% to $854m and a warning that operating

margins will reduce significantly this year and its Arizona, California and Florida markets remain challenging and difficult to predict. The shares firmed 1p to 426p.

Aim-listed German property developer , unmoved on 113p, has bought an 88,000 sq m Frankfurt office block for e199m (131m).

Falling oil and commodity prices were the main feature overnight in New York, where investors struggled to make headway.

The only real ray of light was provided by Apple, whose shares rose by more than 8% following the muchhyped launch of its iPhone, the allsinging, all-dancing mobile phone that allows you to make calls, download music and watch films.

The Dow ended the session down 6.89 at 12,416.60.

In Tokyo today, shares slumped to their lowest in three weeks as the falling oil price prompted hedge funds to unwind open positions in the crude market. The Nikkei 225 closed down 295.37 at 16,942.4.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng ended the day down 329.74 points at 19,568.24.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 9:10 am and is filed under . You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

US investment bank JPMorgan has told clients it believes sales targets for Astra’s Nexium and Crestor are too high. ‘The little purple pill’, as Nexium is known, is often used in the treatment of heartburn, while Crestor is used to reduce high cholesterol.

Both drugs achieve high sales in the lucrative US market but JPM has warned that expectations for America in particular, are running too high. A 10% shortfall on US sales of Nexium is the equivalent of a 3% hit on overall group operating profits.

Crestor has been achieving year-onyear sales volume growth of more than 50%, but JPM says the after-effects of testimony from the US Food and Drug Administration’s David Graham are still trickling down, while month-onmonth prescription trends show little growth.

The bank says the consensus of 20% for compound annual growth over the next five years for US sales of Crestor is too optimistic. As a result, Astra-Zeneca remains JPM’s least favourite drugs company, so it is sticking with its neutral rating.

Its comments will come as a fresh blow to an industry that has been under attack from cheap generic competition-failed drugs and various court actions. The shares later recovered to trade 4p better at 2830p.

Share prices generally continued to trade within a narrow range in the wake of gains on Wall Street overnight. The FTSE 100 index was 21.0 points down to 6221.0.

Total turnover was boosted by Tata Steel’s successful takeover of Corus, up 39p at 602p. More than 230m Corus shares changed hands in the first hour of trading after Tata’s overnight auction-winning offer of 608p a share pipped Brazilian steel group CSR.

Vodafone was another firm market rising 2p to 149p on the back of stronger-than-expected customer growth numbers. Goldman Sachs has repeated its buy rating of the mobile phones giant which says it has signed up almost ninem new customers.

The news from Corus and Vodafone offset disappointing trading updates from Friends Provident, 5p off at 220p, and satellite broadcaster BSkyB, down 5p at 540p.

Shares of F&C Asset Management slumped 44p to 163p after it admitted investors had been pulling their money out and that it would be forced to rebase the . Funds under management in 2006 slumped from 131bn to 104 billion. Most of the withdrawals were made by Dutch investors.

Rio Tinto, 1p cheaper at 2726p, has been upgraded from sell to hold by broker SG Securities as part of a review of the mining sector, with BHP Billiton, up 2p at 953p, initiated as buy while Xstrata, 24p dearer at 2382p, was started with a sell recommendation, dealers said. SG Securities argued that the overall long-term prospects for mining stocks looks positive, but noted it was cautious on the commodities ’super-cycle’ thesis.

Everything was on hold overnight in New York pending the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s regular policy meeting. Hopes of an early cut in interest rates to offset the effects of a slowdown in company earnings growth, have been pared back in recent weeks. News of a rise in consumer confidence had little impact on sentiment and the Dow closed up 32.53 at 12,523.31.

In Tokyo today, investors suffered a double whammy after both Sony and TDK failed to raise their profit forecasts. The Nikkei 225 ended the day 106.77 lower at 17,383.42.

In Hong Kong, shares were also in retreat, worried by growing speculation that China may take steps to slow its fast-growing economy. The Hang Seng index finished the day down 354.04 at 20,106.42, a two-week low.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 1:11 pm and is filed under stocks. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

The PC World and Currys company slipped 1p to 170p today after broker Securities slashed its profit forecast for the current year by 15m to 320m and by even bigger sums further out.

The DSG share price slumped last week after it reported a rise in total sales and same-store sales in the eight weeks to 6 January, of just 3%. Problems with PC City in France and continued trouble in Italy painted a bleak outlook for the group.

Investec points out that margins were down 0.7% in the second half to date and this, combined with the problems at PC City and in Italy, prompted the broker to slash its forecast.

The is thinly covered, but given the strong balance sheet it remains pretty secure. But overall Investec is cautious about prospects for the group. There is scope for improvement in profits over the next few years but if underlying markets flatten out, that may prove to be too optimistic, the broker warns.

Elsewhere, share prices ticked better after positive performances overnight on Wall Street and in Asia this morning. The FTSE 100 index rose 63.2 to 6290.8.

Mining shares made much of the early running, helped by firmer commodity prices and an upgrading of the sector by broker Credit Suisse. rose 69p to 2402p, 30p to 1098p, 9p to 469p and 57p to 2717p.

, up 8p at 657p, and , 1p better at 188p, have been upgraded from neutral to by Credit Suisse, while , 1p off at 163p, has been cut to in the support services sector.

Credit Suisse saidmanufacturing migration continues to present a major opportunity for the testing services and freight forwarding sectors.

Aim-listed drugmaker ReNeuron’s shares dipped p to 45p despite being awarded a research grant from the Parkinson’s Disease foundation of Hollywood actor Michael J Fox, star of the Back to the films.

The size of the grant has not been disclosed but it will fund the group’s ReN004 stem cell programme during the next year. It will also allow to build on its pre-clinical data showing ReN004 has the potential to reverse the effects of Parkinson’s and to develop a biodegradable delivery system to implant the stem cells in Parkinson’s patients.

fell 8p to 155p after announcing plans to raise 30.4m via a two-for-seven rights issue at 130p. The care home provider wants the cash to pay for a proposed acquisition-strategy by its Social Care business. The issue has been underwritten.

In New York overnight, positive news on the earnings front enabled share prices to claw back some of the previous day’s losses. That said, the poor showing in the third quarter and the fact that earnings in the final quarter-have also failed to live up to expectations have made investors wary.

Results from housebuilders Toll Brothers and DR Horton boosted sentiment in a sector where expectations remain at low ebb because of the downturn in the US housing. Betterthanexpected earnings from Texas Instruments also gave some weight to the technology sector. In the event, the Dow Jones closed 56.64 up at 12,533.80.

In Tokyo today, the Nikkei 225 finished at a new nine-month high, up 98.83 at 17,507.40. The weaker yen is proving good news for Japan’s exporters such as , and hopes are high they will use the currency to help boost earnings.

In Hong Kong the Hang Seng index ended the day up 51.35 at a new record high of 20,821.05 following a strong mark-up of stocks.

———————-

TAKING STOCK: Sectors at-a-glance

BANKING AND FINANCE
Insurance broker faces a loss of business from the introduction of the state-sponsored catastrophe fund in Florida. Goldman Sachs says the move could take 36p off its target for the share price by reducing Florida’s property catastrophe reinsurance market. After the recent share price fall, Goldman has downgraded from buy to neutral.

BUILDING AND PROPERTY
Goldman Sachs has upgraded the US housebuilding sector to neutral, saying the rate of decline in the housing market may be slowing. The fundamentals remain troubled and investors may have to wait until 2008 before seeing any improvement. The market has been hit by falling prices and sales, due to lower demand.

CONSUMER
says Tate & Lyle’s previous bullishness was misplaced, and has downgraded the shares from buy to hold, cutting its 2007 earnings forecast by 4% to 46.4p a share. The broker warns it is hard to see why sucralose sales should increase materially beyond 2007, and fully utilising the new Singapore plant looks ambitious.

ENGINEERING
Pratt & Whitney jet engines-to-Otis lifts group attracted a rush of positive brokers’ comments after beating profit forecasts. Fourthquarter profits were $865m (437m) against $626m a year earlier, fuelled by strong aviation electronics demand. Its Sikorsky helicopters arm had some problems, however.

HEALTH
Goldman Sachs reckons Smith & Nephew’s failure to secure a deal with US rival could work in its favour. The broker argues that S&N may now be forced to improve its own cost and capital structure in order to pre-empt being taken over. Goldman has raised its target from 470p to 580p but keeps the shares at neutral.

INDUSTRIALS
Defence contractor traded at record highs after posting solid fullyear profits and highlighting a strong order book. KBC Peel Hunt has repeated its buy rating on Chemring, and still sees the group as a potential takeover target. expects to raise its forecast, and has put its add rating and 1745p target under review.

LEISURE
has repeated its buy rating on , the Aim-listed designer and developer of software for the gaming industry. It comes on the back of news that Playtech’s Videobet subsidiary has signed a contract with Mexican casinos operator Entretenimiento de Mexico, which has 4000 video slot machines.

MEDIA
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has joined the Chandler family, whose forebears built up the Los Angeles Times, in its bid to buy newspaper and TV company Tribune. Murdoch’s main aim is to cut printing and back-office costs at the lossmaking New York Post. His plan is to buy a stake in New York’s Newsday newspaper, owned by Tribune.

NATURAL RESOURCES
Bridgewell has repeated its buy rating on following a 41% increase in oil reserves at its Kiev-Eganskoye Field in Siberia to 321 million barrels. Imperial has also appointed and ABN Amro Hoare Govett as joint brokers prior to the listing of its shares on the main market.

RETAIL
held up relatively well despite concerns the Competition Commission might single out the UK’s biggest food retail for special attention following its inquiry about unfair practices. Dresdner Kleinwort has kept its hold rating on Tesco, noting the Commission had not found any major issues regarding planning or land banks.

SUPPORT SERVICES
Merrill Lynch reckons shares of Group are too expensive, and has cut them from neutral to sell. It blames margin pressure in UK textiles, and estimates fair value at 508p. But Davis operates in a low-growth, capital-intensive industry dominated by large, price-sensitive clients such as hotels and hospitals.

TECHNOLOGY
Computer services group failed to impress with its 2006 trading update. Credit Suisse described its performance as ’simply not good enough’. The main problem has been the lack of suitably qualified staff to meet customer demand, and tight labour markets. The broker has repeated its outperform rating.

TELECOMS
Buying of shares by directors gave a boost. Tony Rice has bought an extra 300,000 shares at 1601/4p, for a total of 480,750, stretching his holding to three million shares, or less than 1% of the company. John Pluthero has bought a further 62,402 shares and now holds 1.06m.

TRANSPORT
Some positive news at last for European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie. It says it has received a firm order for 30 of the versatile twin-engined A319s from Spirit Airlines. It added that deliveries of the 144-seat planes to the Florida-based airline would take place between October 2009 and the middle of 2013.

UTILITIES
Bid speculation that carried higher last year has evaporated. Russia’s Gazprom was seen as a buyer for the group in order to establish a foothold in the UK. Despite the absence of a bid, broker believes the shares still have life. It has repeated its buy rating and set a 400p target.

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Get ready-made diversification

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 2:51 pm and is filed under stocks. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

That was the message issued today by Deutsche Bank which lifted shares in the publisher of Penguin books and the Financial Times 1p to 772p. These days 70% of Pearson’s profits come from education businesses and that could signal that the ‘for sale’ sign will finally go up at the Pink ‘Un.

Education is a growth market that Deutsche says is enjoying something of a ’sweet spot’ and now is the time to deliver. As a result, its has raised its rating on the shares from hold to buy and hiked its 12-month price target by a hefty 160p to 870p.

Deutsche says current political trends support Pearson’s key education assets and technology drive. The company has invested heavily in new technologies, suggesting this should pay off and drive a ‘ peerleading performance’.

‘The company should push harder on margin and could restructure by means of selling off its newspapers, enabling it to significantly re-lever,’ says Deutsche. This would provide a 15% improvement to its current 2008 forecasts.

Failure to deliver could spell the end for Scardino, warns Deutsche. ‘In the past decade she has delivered 4% earnings compound annual growth rate, against a double digit promise. Shareholders will not stand for failure now’.

A big sell-off in the Far East this morning amid further evidence of a slowdown in the global economy, spilled over into London this morning and left the FTSE 100 index 43.8 down at 6152.3.

has been taking a peek at the European drugs sector and napped Roche and Merck as its picks for 2007 with the UK’s , down 7p at 1353p, its wild card.

It still likes , 1p lighter at 536p, and repeated its buy rating while lifting its sights on the shares from 550p to 600p. But , down 16p at 2790p, fails to impress the US broker, which has cut its target from 3400p to 3100p.

Housebuilder is lopping $40m (20.6m) off the value of its US land bank, a market that accounts for roughly half of the company’s business.

But a strong UK new homes market still allowed Woodrow to tell brokers today that 2006 results would come in at the top end of expectations, meaning pre-tax profits of around 395m.

Chief executive Ian Smith, who joined the board only last week, is sitting on UK forward orders worth 534m. up 30% on last year with margins for the full year ahead of those made in the first half.

America ,however, is a different story with the order book down 39.9% to $854m and a warning that operating

margins will reduce significantly this year and its Arizona, California and Florida markets remain challenging and difficult to predict. The shares firmed 1p to 426p.

Aim-listed German property developer , unmoved on 113p, has bought an 88,000 sq m Frankfurt office block for e199m (131m).

Falling oil and commodity prices were the main feature overnight in New York, where investors struggled to make headway.

The only real ray of light was provided by Apple, whose shares rose by more than 8% following the muchhyped launch of its iPhone, the allsinging, all-dancing mobile phone that allows you to make calls, download music and watch films.

The Dow ended the session down 6.89 at 12,416.60.

In Tokyo today, shares slumped to their lowest in three weeks as the falling oil price prompted hedge funds to unwind open positions in the crude market. The Nikkei 225 closed down 295.37 at 16,942.4.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng ended the day down 329.74 points at 19,568.24.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 10:31 pm and is filed under stocks. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved its Lialda treatment for ulcerated colitis after successful phase three trials. Lialda can be taken orally on a daily basis by patients with active, mild and moderate forms of the illness.

It is the first treatment of its kind to be approved by the FDA and, says US broker , could notch up sales of $150m (77m) annually by 2010.

Lialda will be competing against the likes of Procter & Gamble’s Asacol and Salix’s Colazide, but Citigroup says it is the first once-daily treatment and also the only one to have the induction of a remission label on top of symptom treatment.

Citigroup told clients today: ‘The key date on the horizon is FDA approval of NRP101 in late February, and full-year results are on 21 February. is likely to move to the top of the sector’s mergers and acquisitions list once through February.’

It continues to rate the shares a buy with a 1200p target. They responded with a rise of 14p to 1098p, just 6p below their record high.

Shares saw thin trading, and despite gains on Wall Street overnight and in the Far East this morning, the FTSE 100 index fell 9.6 points to 6206.1.

The banks came under early selling pressure after a downgrading of the sector by Swiss broker . It has cut , down 16p at 2016p, from buy to neutral and reduced , off 7p at 583p, from neutral to reduce because it reckons they look too expensive.

RBS has rallied 23% since reaching a low point in July, which has brought it into line with traditional sector multiples. The broker says Lloyds TSB is now sitting at the top of its five-year , and it sees little scope for short-term improvement in the shares. The group may look to make acquisitions this year to get things going.

The City gave the thumbs-down to a trading update from electrical retailer and marked the shares 16p lower at 177p. , on the other hand, turned out to be better than expected in the wake of last month’s profits warning and the shares ticked p better to 34p.

Advertising giant responded to an upgrading by Credit Suisse with a rise of 8p to 743p. The broker has raised the shares from neutral to and jacked up its target price from 700p to 800p.

Share prices recovered from a slow start in New York overnight with the help of lower oil prices on world markets after Saudi Arabia rejected calls to talk about production cuts.

Investors also focused on earnings numbers from blue-chip companies, including microchip maker which failed to impress. Others reporting this week include Apple, , JPMorgan, Continental, , Citigroup and GE. Shares saw their gains pared back late in the session and at the close the Dow was up 26.51 at 12,582.59.

That did not prevent share prices in Asia trading higher this morning as investors got charged up. In Tokyo, speculation about an imminent rise in interest rates appeared to be fading. Property companies were marked higher as a result, and this helped offset losses in the banking, where share prices were depressed by the absence of dearer money.

Hi-tech companies came under the hammer after Intel’s trading update, with the likes of losing ground, but they later steadied with the appearance of a few bargain hunters. The Nikkei 225 closed up 58.89 at 17,261.35.

The buying spilled over into Hong Kong, with the focus on sectors that have been left behind of late. The Hang Seng index ended the day up 36.62 at 20,064.57.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 9:52 am and is filed under stocks. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.