London open
City sources predict FTSE 100 will open up 21 points from yesterday's close of 5,132.
Stocks to watch
Pub group and brewer Fuller's posted record profits last year as its managed pubs and hotels pushed forward with its brewing business also going well. Profits in the year to March jumped 86% to Ł26.8m, with underlying profits 17% ahead at Ł26.6m - well ahead of market forecsats. Revenues rose by 18% to Ł228m.
Real estate investment trust Hammerson has bought a long leasehold on Leadenhall Court, a City of London office building, for Ł65m including transaction costs. The building is fully let until March 2014. Passing rents are Ł7.16m per annum reflecting an initial yield of 11%.
Bury St. Edmund’s based brewer and pubs group Greene King has bought four freehold pub restaurants from cash constrained competitor Punch Taverns for Ł5.3m. The pubs which are located in “highly attractive, food-led, destination sites in Aberdeen, Northampton and Nottingham,” Greene King said.
In the Press
A new calculation of the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the fractured BP oil rig have dramatically increased the estimate, suggesting an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could be pouring into the ocean every eight to 10 days. The fresh estimate from a US government panel is 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day - significantly above the previous estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day, the Times reports.
The Prudential’s leading institutional shareholders have frozen the chief executive out of crunch talks to debate his own future. It emerged last night that despite being in London, Tidjane Thiam has held no formal talks with shareholders this week about the future management of the UK’s biggest insurer. Instead, shareholders have specifically called for meetings with the chairman Harvey McGrath and James Ross, the senior independent director, the Times reports.
One of Tesco’s top 10 executives has announced his resignation just a day after Britain’s biggest retail chain anointed Philip Clarke as Sir Terry Leahy’s successor. The departure of the highly regarded Colin Holmes is the first prominent defection at Tesco following the retail chain’s most radical management restructuring in 13 years. Tesco said on Thursday night that Mr Holmes, its fresh foods commercial director, resigned in April although his departure was only announced internally on Wednesday, a day after Mr Clarke was unveiled as Sir Terry’s successor. He was on the retailer’s executive committee and had been tipped as a possible contender to the Tesco crown, the FT reports.
Newspaper tips
It was a tale of two divisions yesterday at Home Retail Group. While underlying sales declined by just 1.4% at the group's DIY chain Homebase, which was ahead of expectations, like-for-like sales tumbled by a disappointing 8.1% at its catalogue operation, Argos. Home Retail's shares now trade on a 2011 forecast multiple of less than 10, which puts them at a nice discount to the retail sector, while speculation over a potential takeover bid, perhaps from the world of private equity, perhaps from Asda, is unlikely to go away. Worth a look for speculative buyers says the Independent.
To back Premier Farnell is an investment in the global recovery in manufacturing investment — and in the track record of chief executvie Harriet Green. It is a company tied to the economic cycle and will suffer should recovery stall, notwithstanding its plans to diversify geographically. The surge in the share price sees the stock trading on 15 times this year’s earnings, but the yield still remains attractive at about 4% with the suggestion that if earnings keep going up so will the dividend. Hold says the Times.
Hargreaves Services, the coal supply-chain group and owner of the Maltby Colliery in Yorkshire, has walked away from its mooted purchase of UK Coal. Trading on a May 2010 multiple of 7.5 falling to 6.2% in 2011, the shares offer good value. Buy says the Telegraph.
US close
US shares powered forward as oil stocks rebounded following yesterday’s sell-off and investors took comfort from a solid performance by the euro after the latest ECB rate decision.
The euro held above $1.20 for the first time in a week after ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said it would maintain its current monetary policy.
BP shares led the rally in the US, but were down in the UK. Wednesday’s plunge in the value of its US stock shocked BP into issuing a statement this morning claiming it knows of no reason for the 16% slump in its US shares yesterday.
Chevron, Anadarko Petroleum, Baker Hughes, Halliburton and Diamond Offshore Drilling were all sharply higher on the day. Miners, including Cliffs Natural Resources and Alcoa, were also higher.
On the economic front, the weekly jobless claims showed unemployment fell by a less-than-forecast 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 456,000
The Commerce Department said the trade gap widened to $40.3bn from a downwardly revised $40bn the previous month.
Across the markets, the Dow Jones surged 273 points to 10,172 with the Nasdaq rising 60 points to 2,218. The S&P 500 was up 31 points at 1,086.
City sources predict FTSE 100 will open up 21 points from yesterday's close of 5,132.
Stocks to watch Pub group and brewer Fuller's posted record profits last year as its managed pubs and hotels pushed forward with its brewing business also going well. Profits in the year to March jumped 86% to Ł26.8m, with underlying profits 17% ahead at Ł26.6m - well ahead of market forecsats. Revenues rose by 18% to Ł228m.
Real estate investment trust Hammerson has bought a long leasehold on Leadenhall Court, a City of London office building, for Ł65m including transaction costs. The building is fully let until March 2014. Passing rents are Ł7.16m per annum reflecting an initial yield of 11%.
Bury St. Edmund’s based brewer and pubs group Greene King has bought four freehold pub restaurants from cash constrained competitor Punch Taverns for Ł5.3m. The pubs which are located in “highly attractive, food-led, destination sites in Aberdeen, Northampton and Nottingham,” Greene King said.
In the Press
A new calculation of the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the fractured BP oil rig have dramatically increased the estimate, suggesting an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could be pouring into the ocean every eight to 10 days. The fresh estimate from a US government panel is 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day - significantly above the previous estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day, the Times reports.
The Prudential’s leading institutional shareholders have frozen the chief executive out of crunch talks to debate his own future. It emerged last night that despite being in London, Tidjane Thiam has held no formal talks with shareholders this week about the future management of the UK’s biggest insurer. Instead, shareholders have specifically called for meetings with the chairman Harvey McGrath and James Ross, the senior independent director, the Times reports.
One of Tesco’s top 10 executives has announced his resignation just a day after Britain’s biggest retail chain anointed Philip Clarke as Sir Terry Leahy’s successor. The departure of the highly regarded Colin Holmes is the first prominent defection at Tesco following the retail chain’s most radical management restructuring in 13 years. Tesco said on Thursday night that Mr Holmes, its fresh foods commercial director, resigned in April although his departure was only announced internally on Wednesday, a day after Mr Clarke was unveiled as Sir Terry’s successor. He was on the retailer’s executive committee and had been tipped as a possible contender to the Tesco crown, the FT reports.
Newspaper tips
It was a tale of two divisions yesterday at Home Retail Group. While underlying sales declined by just 1.4% at the group's DIY chain Homebase, which was ahead of expectations, like-for-like sales tumbled by a disappointing 8.1% at its catalogue operation, Argos. Home Retail's shares now trade on a 2011 forecast multiple of less than 10, which puts them at a nice discount to the retail sector, while speculation over a potential takeover bid, perhaps from the world of private equity, perhaps from Asda, is unlikely to go away. Worth a look for speculative buyers says the Independent.
To back Premier Farnell is an investment in the global recovery in manufacturing investment — and in the track record of chief executvie Harriet Green. It is a company tied to the economic cycle and will suffer should recovery stall, notwithstanding its plans to diversify geographically. The surge in the share price sees the stock trading on 15 times this year’s earnings, but the yield still remains attractive at about 4% with the suggestion that if earnings keep going up so will the dividend. Hold says the Times.
Hargreaves Services, the coal supply-chain group and owner of the Maltby Colliery in Yorkshire, has walked away from its mooted purchase of UK Coal. Trading on a May 2010 multiple of 7.5 falling to 6.2% in 2011, the shares offer good value. Buy says the Telegraph.US close
US shares powered forward as oil stocks rebounded following yesterday’s sell-off and investors took comfort from a solid performance by the euro after the latest ECB rate decision.
The euro held above $1.20 for the first time in a week after ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said it would maintain its current monetary policy.
BP shares led the rally in the US, but were down in the UK. Wednesday’s plunge in the value of its US stock shocked BP into issuing a statement this morning claiming it knows of no reason for the 16% slump in its US shares yesterday.
Chevron, Anadarko Petroleum, Baker Hughes, Halliburton and Diamond Offshore Drilling were all sharply higher on the day. Miners, including Cliffs Natural Resources and Alcoa, were also higher.
On the economic front, the weekly jobless claims showed unemployment fell by a less-than-forecast 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 456,000
The Commerce Department said the trade gap widened to $40.3bn from a downwardly revised $40bn the previous month.
Across the markets, the Dow Jones surged 273 points to 10,172 with the Nasdaq rising 60 points to 2,218. The S&P 500 was up 31 points at 1,086.
No comments:
Post a Comment