WILL FEWER PEOPLE BE TAKING A WINTER BREAK IN THE RECESSION? August 12, 2009 SAM HART CHARLES STANLEYWinter 2009/10 is expected to be the toughest period in the current downturn, as winter holidays tend to be more discretionary than summer holidays. Bookings for winter appear to have got off to a slow start, but it remains early in the booking cycle and trading has strengthened in the last four [...]
BANK SHOCKS WITH NEW 50bn BOOST August 6, 2009 THE Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) shocked the markets yesterday with an unexpected increase of its quantitative easing programme to £175bn, equivalent to 12 per cent of GDP and above the maximum authorised by chancellor Alistair Darling in March. Sterling fell more than a cent against the dollar after it hit nine-month highs [...]
ARE YOU CHEERED BY UNILEVER’S RETURN TO GROWTH? August 6, 2009 GRAHAM JONES PANMURE GORDON“Unilever certainly deserves credit for restor-ing volume growth more strongly than we had expected, with two per cent growth in the second quarter after a fall. While we are trimming our sterling profit forecasts by four to five per cent to reflect recent sterling strength, we are raising our price target to [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 5, 2009 NATIONAL EXPRESSInvestec has retained its “buy” recommendation for National Express. It says that a month of high drama including takeover approaches and a profits warning has left the company fighting for its future. But the broker still believes that despite a likely break-up, the group is trading in line with its peers and therefore risks [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 4, 2009 RECKITT BENCKISEREvolution Securities maintains its “Add” recommendation for household and health provider Reckitt Benckiser and raises its price target for the shares to 3,050p. Despite forecasted profit losses in the next year, the broker sees a strong new product pipeline and focus on volume growth as spelling encouraging progression. MARKS & SPENCERGoldman Sachs predicts significant [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 3, 2009 COOKSONDeutsche Bank has upgraded its forecast in metal products supplier Cookson from “Hold” to “Buy”. Despite previous cuts, due to the brokers’ belief that Cookson may breach its covenants on its debt in December. It says it still regards the firm as a high-risk recovery play but has upped its target price to 500p, from [...]
Small rise for July surveys August 2, 2009 FURTHER improvements are expected in the forward-looking CIPS/Markit purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) due out this week, although economists caution that the rises will only be modest at best, indicating a weak recovery for the UK economy in the second half of 2009. The service sector, which accounts for about 60 per cent of UK GDP [...]
City divided on how to use quantitative easing money August 2, 2009 The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) faces a tough decision this week when it meets to discuss its next steps on quantitative easing (QE). The Bank last week exhausted the £125bn of Treasury money it said it would pump into the banking system, and must now decide at its monthly meeting whether to [...]
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE PURCHASING MANAGERS’ INDICES TO SHOW? August 2, 2009 PHILIP SHAW INVESTECRecent trends in the services PMI have been highly encouraging in recent months. The problem is that this revival is still not fully reflected in the official data, which showed the service sector contracting by 0.6 per cent over the second quarter. The MPC is likely to place some weight on the readings [...]
ARE YOU COMFORTED BY CADBURY’S TRADING ? July 29, 2009 SAM HART CHARLES STANLEYThe company has announced that it has launched Fair Trade certified Dairy Milk in the UK and Ireland which may result in further share gains as a potentially substantial hurdle for competitors As a reflection of increasing confidence it announced an eight per cent increase in dividend. KEITH BOWMAN HARGREAVES LANSDOWNCadbury is [...]