ADVFN Morning Euro Markets Bulletin - March 29th 2011

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London Market Reports
FTSE 100 Euronext Dax perf CAC 40


Blue chips mark time again

Market Movers
FTSE 100 5,895.89 -0.15%
techMARK 1,874.42 -0.05%
FTSE 250 11,633.46 -0.03%

London is marking time this morning with investors keeping a wary eye on events in Japan and Libya.

BP is also under pressure after major shareholder Standard Life told it to walk away from its troubled deal with Russian state oil firm Rosneft.

BP wants to push ahead with the share-swap that would it buy a 9.5% stake in Rosneft, taking its holding to 11%, while the Russian group would take 5% of the UK oil giant.

David Cumming, Standard Life's UK equities head, said in an interview "At the moment we don't think BP has got a Plan B so unless there is some clear commercial benefit to BP shareholders for doing this deal...we're not supportive at the moment," he told the BBC.

Hedge fund giant Man again needed the help of recent acquisition GLG as market uncertainty following the earthquake in Japan took its toll on its core AHL fund. Funds under management over the past three months edged up to $69bn from $68.6bn at December, though AHL’s performance “turned sharply down with markets after the Japanese earthquake but has since partially recovered”. A positive performance at GLG also counterbalanced a negative period for AHL, Man said.

Travel company Thomas Cook has kept its estimate of disruption from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia to £20m and says, overall, the business is performing well. Bookings, capacity and booked load factors across all markets are lower than previously reported for winter season holidays though, mainly due to cancellations following the unrest in North Africa. But summer holiday bookings are ahead of last year in many areas.

Defence firm Cobham has won a contract worth more than £18m to provide chaff and flare defensive aids systems for the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet Tranche 3A programme.

Africa-focused oil and gas firm Afren notched up its first full year of post-tax profit in 2010. Though revenue eased to $319.4m in 2010 from $335.8m in 2009, profit before tax surged ahead to $78.8m from $0.5m the year before.

CPP Group has collapsed after yesterday's announcement that the FSA has raised sales-related issues with its identity protection products and this will reduce its profit in 2011. The identity theft and credit card insurer said that the FSA is concerned about sales calls with customers. CPP has decided to suspend all new sales of identity protection via its own sales force.

Young fashion retailer SuperGroup confirmed that its chief operating officer Diane Savory has decided to step down from the board and to leave the company for personal reasons. Savory will leave 6 May 2011 once the handover of her responsibilities to others in the group is completed.

Shares of outsourced services provider Mouchel plunged 29% after it rejected takeover offers from Interserve and Costain and as it posted a 73% drop in half year underlying profit. Mouchel said the offers, "significantly under-value the business and that Costain's proposal has an unacceptably high level of execution risk to warrant further discussions.”

Exillon Energy, the oil firm with assets at Timan-Pechora (TP) in Northern Russia and West Siberia (WS) has raised £93.8m ($150m) from a share placing. It sold 23.44m new shares at 400p each, giving it $42m to fund infrastructure projects in WS like oil processing facilities, infield pipelines, equipment for gas utilisation and power generation.


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UK Event Calendar
INTERIMS
EpiStem Holdings, Ultimate Finance Group, Wolseley

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Dow Chemical Co, Yamana Gold Inc.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Household Spending (JPN)
Jobless Rate (JPN)
Retail Sales (JPN)
Small Business Confidence (JPN)
Balance of Payments (GER) (07:00)
Consumer Spending (FRA) (07:45)
Consumer Prices (GER)
Consumer Confidence (US) (15:00)

FINALS
AFI Development, Augean, Breedon Aggregates Ltd., Brightside Group, Corac Group, Faroe Petroleum, Gresham Computing, Hochschild Mining, InternetQ, IQE, Kazakhmys, Nationwide Accident Repair Services, Phoenix Group Holdings (DI), Powerflute Oyj (DI), Real Good Food Company, Scisys, Toumaz Ltd., Vindon Healthcare

ANNUAL REPORT
Aviva, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company SA, Gresham Computing, StatPro Group

EGMS
Lecico Egypt SAE GDR (Reg S)

AGMS
Helius Energy, Horizonte Minerals, Lecico Egypt SAE GDR (Reg S), Low Carbon Accelerator Ltd., Temple Bar Inv Trust, United Bank Ltd. GDR (Reg S)

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Babcock International Group, Man Group, Thomas Cook Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Payments (09:30)
Current Account (09:30)
GDP (quarterly national accounts) (09:30)
Mortgage Approvals (09:30)
M4 Money Supply (09:30)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Mitsubhi Electric Corp.


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European Market Reports
Hugo Boss foresees strong growth

Most European bourses have opened modestly firmer, continuing yesterday’s firmer trend, despite Wall Street’s late swoon yesterday.

The Paris CAC is up 8 at 3,985 and the Frankfurt DAX is 12 points firmer at 6,950. Milan’s MIB index is weaker, however, down 88 at 21,922.

Banks make the early running in Paris after broker Sanford C. Bernstein issued buy recommendations on Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.

On the company news front, fashion firm Hugo Boss has made a “successful start” to 2011. The German designer label firm expects to grow underlying sales by at least 12% this year, driven by growth in demand from China and America.

The group is targeting growth in core earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of at least 15% this year.

On the economic front, French consumer spending on manufactured goods rose 0.9% in February after January’s revised 0.3% fall. The advanced topped economists’ expectations of a 0.5% gain.

CAC 40 - Risers
Michelin (ML) € 61.16 +1.26%
Peugeot (UG) € 27.86 +1.18%
Credit Agricole (ACA) € 12.31 +1.11%
Renault (RNO) € 37.83 +0.93%
EADS (EAD) € 20.37 +0.72%
BNP Paribas (BNP) € 53.60 +0.64%
ArcelorMittal SA (MT) € 25.70 +0.63%
Societe Generale (GLE) € 48.62 +0.56%
Lafarge (LG) € 44.22 +0.49%
GDF Suez (GSZ) € 28.03 +0.48%

CAC 40 - Fallers
ST Microelectronics (STM) € 8.72 -0.45%
Natixis SA (KN) € 4.14 -0.29%
Suez Environnement Company (SEV) € 14.40 -0.21%
Publicis Groupe Sa (PUB) € 38.44 -0.19%
Accor (AC) € 30.75 -0.18%
Carrefour (CA) € 31.63 -0.16%
Vivendi (VIV) € 19.76 -0.13%
Vinci (DG) € 43.09 -0.10%
Essilor International (EI) € 51.74 -0.10%
LVMH (MC) € 110.85 -0.05%


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US Market Reports
Dow Jones NASDAQ NYSE AMEX


Dow falls as overseas concerns weigh

Wall Street started higher but finished down for the first day in the three on concerns about international affairs and Japan’s nuclear problems.

The Libya situation appears to be improving, but the same cannot be said about the nuclear emergency in Japan. There are renewed radiation fears at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Dow Jones shed 22 at 12,197, Nasdaq lost 12 at 2, 730, while the S&P 500 gave back 3 at 1,310

On the economic front, personal income and personal spending in February was +0.3% and +0.7% monthly respectively. The report was better than expected although disposable income contracted in real terms.

In company news, Eastman Kodak rises strongly due to the possible revision of a negative legal sentence by the ITC regulator.

Hotel operator Marriott International warned that North American demand is below expectations and that hit its shares. Hyatt Hotels and Starwood Hotels are also lower. Goodyear Tire & Rubber is offering $435m of convertible preference shares.

In terms of M&A activity, Walter Investment will acquire Green Tree for $1.07bn. According to The Wall Street Journal, the ICE and the Nasdaq-OMX will continue looking into a possible takeover of NYSE-Euronext.


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Newspaper Round-up
DP World, Rusagro, Portugal...

DP World, the international ports operator that bought P&O, is to seek a London listing less than a year after it abandoned a planned flotation.

The company, majority-controlled by the emirate of Dubai, which is ruled by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is meeting prospective investors in London. The news is the latest boost for a revitalising London float market. The high-tech engineering group Edwards is set to be the year’s largest listing when it comes to market this spring valued at £1.5 bn. However, that float would be dwarfed by Glencore if the commodities giant finally decides on its £40 bn listing, the Times reports.

Rusagro, the giant Russian sugar and pork producer, has set the price of its London flotation at $14.50 to $18.25 per Global Depositary Receipt (GDR). The company plans to raise $300m (£187m) as part of the initial public offering (IPO) and could be valued at up to $2.08bn on listing. The money raised will be used to fund the company's expansion plans, the Telegraph reports.

One pound in every £4 of advertising spend is now online, according to the latest advertising study from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC. More than £4bn was spent on internet advertising last year, slightly under the £4.28bn spent on television advertising in 2010. The internet's slice of advertising has increased to 25%, with television having a 26% share of the market. Total advertising spend in the UK in 2010 was £16.6bn, the Telegraph reports.

Northern Rock, the loss-making nationalised British bank, is to cut up to 680 jobs this year to reduce costs. The Newcastle-based bank, which the Government hopes to sell, said its cost base was too high and needed to be slashed before it could be returned to the private sector. Compulsory redundancies will be kept to a minimum, according to Northern Rock, which said it would offer voluntary redundancy where possible., the Telegraph reports.

A credit card and identity theft specialist has been forced to pull its flagship insurance product amid concerns about alleged failings in its sales pitch. CPP, which describes itself as a “life assistance” company, said that the Financial Services Authority had been investigating the sale of its identity protection products, which have been bought by one million customers in Britain. CPP said that it was suspending all new sales of the policies that contain an insurance component after the FSA expressed concerns over “alleged failings in sales calls with customers”, the Times reports.

Markets showed their disappointment at last week's inconclusive EU Summit by marking Portuguese sovereign debt down once again, while a leading credit ratings agency has downgraded Portugal's largest banks and warned it may do the same to its sovereign debt rating, the second time in a week. With market interest rates on Portuguese debt close to 8 per cent and its bonds close to "junk" status, few investors now believe Portugal can avoid a bailout. Failure to agree a plan to boost the current EU rescue fund last week, plus demands from Ireland to renegotiate its deal has also added to the febrile atmosphere; meanwhile, Portugal is run by a caretaker government, the Independent reports.

JP Morgan takes over top spot, according to Dealogic, after rival misses out on three biggest deals in first quarter Goldman Sachs has been been knocked off the top spot of the global M&A advisory rankings by rival JPMorgan. According to figures from Dealogic, Goldman advised on $163.7 billion of deals in the first quarter, well below the $216 billion of mandates picked up by JPMorgan. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank were also in the top five global M&A advisors, the Times reports.

Americans' savings rate dropped last month as new figures showed that consumers are using more of their disposable income to cope with the rising cost of food and petrol. The savings rate declined to 5.8% in February from 6.1% in January, as incomes rose a smaller-than-forecast 0.3% on the month, the Commerce Department said, reports the Telegraph

Officers Club, the ailing menswear retailer, is poised to fall into administration for the second time in just over two years, leaving hundreds of jobs hanging by a thread. The 106-store chain, which employs about 1,200 staff, is set to file a notice of intention to appoint Grant Thornton as administrator at a court as early as today. However, the expected administration of Officers Club could be followed by a potential rescue deal for half of its stores, the Independent reports.