BEST OF THE BROKERS December 11, 2011 HAYS Shore Capital rates the recruitment group as a “hold” with a target price of 63p, but makes downgrades to its estimates, seeing exposure to Europe and high Australian conversion rates as negative pressures. The broker lowers its earnings per share forecasts for 2012, 2013 and 2014 by 4 per cent, 16.7 per cent and [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT WILL LIFE AFTER COMET BE LIKE FOR KESA? December 7, 2011 RICHARD HUNTER | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN The planned disposal of the UK Comet business will convert the company into a European, especially French, play and even here the previously promising development has weakened. The Comet disposal has also resulted in some notable impairment charges. There are some glimmers of hope. DAVID JEARY | INVESTEC The Comet [...]
Polymetal and Evraz join FTSE 100 December 7, 2011 Building materials group CRH, steel and mining company Evraz and precious metals producer Polymetal will be promoted to the FTSE 100 on 19 December as a result of this quarter’s stock exchange review. They will take the places of mobile satellite firm Inmarsat, asset manager Investec and platinum miner Lonmin. The reshuffle will also see [...]
Banks and miners fuel FTSE gains December 7, 2011 Miners and banks fuelled a lift in the FTSE 100 as investor sentiment improved ahead of a crunch Eurozone summit. The blue chip index mirrored Asia and the US where markets recovered from the ratings blow from Standard & Poor’s, which threatened to downgrade 15 nations, including Germany. There is mounting optimism that Eurozone leaders [...]
ALL BETS ARE OFF FOR DEL BONO’S CASINO PLOT December 6, 2011 IT WAS like the Marie Celeste when Luca Del Bono first looked round 50 St James’s: the tables in the restaurant were still laid for dinner and the staff uniforms were still hanging on their hooks in the hall. That’s what happens when you abandon ship so abruptly – as the site’s previous owner, the [...]
Russia miners to add weight to bluechips December 4, 2011 RUSSIA’s presence on the UK’s top share index will go up this Wednesday if two of its newly London-listed metals and mining groups are admitted in the quarterly changeover of its constituents. Evraz, the steelmaking group part-owned by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovitch, and Polymetal, Russia’s biggest silver producer, have each swapped their global depositary receipt [...]
Short sellers eye Weir Group and retailers in the FTSE 100 December 4, 2011 HEDGE funds substantially increased their short positions on engineering company Weir Group in November after the company disappointed investors with its trading update mid-month, new data from Data Explorers shows. Short interest in Weir Group, measured by the percentage of its shares borrowed by investors, has doubled in the past two months to 7.14 per [...]
DO KINGFISHER’S RESULTS SIGNAL GOOD NEWS FOR THE FULL YEAR? December 1, 2011 RICHARD HUNTER| HARGREAVES LANDSDOWN Kingfisher has significantly exceeded estimates and the share price rewarded accordingly with a strong early hike… Even prior to this strong update, the shares had had a good run over the last three months. Today’s numbers seem unlikely to dampen this optimism, with the general market view of the shares as [...]
Dire markets hit Panmure November 30, 2011 TIM Linacre yesterday announced he would be standing down as chief executive of Panmure Gordon, one of the City’s oldest stockbrokers, following a profits warning. Linacre’s decision follows a period of 18 months during which he has been discussing succession planning with the company’s board and its 44 per cent Qatari shareholder. The broker said [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT WILL YOU TAKE FROM THE SAGE RESULTS? November 30, 2011 JULIAN YATES | INVESTEC Underlying (ex healthcare disposal) profits were a touch ahead of our estimates, but the outlook suggests profit growth will slow… The company is continuing to invest in bringing new technologies to market which means margins are likely to flat-line in FY12 … we see no reason to turn move positive at [...]