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 |  Subject: ADVFN Morning Euro Markets Bulletin March, 22th 2010  Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:47 am | |
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London Market Report |
Weak start for Footsie
London has pulled back from last week’s 21-month high after Wall Street’s eight-day winning streak ended Friday.
Royal Dutch Shell is in the news, after Australian coal bed methane producer Arrow Energy agreed to a raised bid worth A3.4bn (£2.06bn) bid from the UK oil giant and partner PetroChina.
The pair are now offering A$4.70 a share in cash for Arrow's Australian assets plus one share in a new listed company to be called Dart Energy. Dart will contain Arrow's Asian exploration assets. The original offer was worth A$4.45 a share.
Inter-dealer broker ICAP has decided to close elements of its cash equities business after conducting a broad ranging strategic review. As a result, the group will no longer offer an integrated full service agency cash equities business, including research, in Europe and Asia. Currently these businesses employ 114 staff who will be affected by this decision.
Building supplies group Wolseley is still finding the going tough, although half year losses narrowed sharply and the rate of like for like revenue decline continued to slow. It lost £261m in the six months to 31 January, less than the £464m deficit reported a year ago. The loss before exceptional items shrank to £7m from £344m.
Smiths Interconnect, a division of technology firm Smiths Group, announced the $185m all-cash purchase of Kansas City-based Interconnect Devices Inc. (IDI) from private equity firm Milestone Partners.
Gulfsands Petroleum has agreed to acquire working interest positions in two exploration permits in Tunisia (Chorbane and Kerkouane Permits) and one exploration permit in Southern Italy from AuDAX Resources.
Cable & Wireless Communications has started trading after the first stage of the demerger. Cable & Wireless Worldwide starts tradinfg on 26 March.
Irn Bru maker AG Barr reported a 21% jump in full-year pre-tax profits and said current trading is ahead of the same period last year. Profit on ordinary activities before tax and exceptional items increased to £27.9m in the year ended 30 January from £23.1m last time. Turnover increased by 18.7% to £201.4m.
Outsourced workplaces provider Regus saw full-year pre-tax profits plunge and said its outlook remains unclear. Pre-tax profit dropped to £86.9m in the year ended 31 December compared with £149.2m last time. |
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| | UK Event Calendar for today |
The Budget, Next, Kingfisher
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, will make what could be his last Budget speech on Wednesday, while on the corporate side there are a number of big company announcements due, with retailers well represented.
Fashion retailer Next is announcing full year figures on Thursday and, ‘given the resilience of clothing sales in January (per BRC [British Retail Consortium] data) and the implicit expression of confidence from the decision to pursue a non-discretionary buyback programme into close season,’ JP Morgan Cazenove is ‘not expecting any disappointments’.
Market expectations are for pre-tax profit of £495.92m, up from £428.8m the year before. Sales are tipped to climb to £3,373.1m from £3,271.5m the previous year.
Comparative figures for DIY retailer Kingfisher are starting to get tougher, though broker Nomura Securities thinks ‘the recent advertising focus on price vs. competitors may help to annualise LFL [like for like] growth.’
The broker is forecasting full-year pre-tax profit of £545m, which is virtually bang on the median point of broker forecasts. The market is expecting sales to rise to £10,562m from £10,026m the year before.
‘From a strategy perspective, we expect more detail on the Trade Point roll-out, which is currently under way, and the longer term trade opportunity, as well as some level of detail on delivery of the Jan 2012 plan,’ Nomura said.
INTERIMS
Nautical Petroleum, PureCircle, Wolseley
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Virgin Media Inc.
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Auto Sales (AUS) (00:00)
Chicago Fed National Activity Index (US) (12.30)
Consumer Confidence (EU) (15.00)
GMS
Pan Andean Resources
FINALS
AG Barr, China Food, Cryo-Save Group, DataCash Group, Development Securities, Forth Ports, Green Dragon Gas, Healthcare Locums, Kentz Corporation, Nationwide Accident Repair Services, Orchid Developments Group, Parkwood Holdings, Regus, RGI International, Zenergy Power
ANNUAL REPORT
Brit Insurance Holdings NV, JPMorgan US Discovery Inv Trust
EGMS
EIH Plc
AGMS
Hirco
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Brit Insurance Holdings NV |
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| | European Market Report |
Pharma shares drop
Europe's leading exchanges have started the week on a negative note following last week's stellar performance, with pharmaceutical companies among the main fallers.
Pharma shares dropped after the US House of Representatives approved President Obama's healthcare reform. Roche, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Sanofi-Aventis are all on offer.
Accross the markets, the Dax in Frankfurt is down 28 points at 5,954 and the Cac in Paris is 21 points lower at 3,904. The Swiss market lost 26 points to 6,854.
Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is in the news after Australian coal bed methane producer Arrow Energy agreed to a raised bid worth A3.4bn (£2.06bn) bid from the UK oil giant and partner PetroChina.
The pair are now offering A$4.70 a share in cash for Arrow's Australian assets plus one share in a new listed company to be called Dart Energy. Dart will contain Arrow's Asian exploration assets. The original offer was worth A$4.45 a share.
Inter-dealer broker ICAP dropped after it decided to close elements of its cash equities business after conducting a broad ranging strategic review. As a result, the group will no longer offer an integrated full service agency cash equities business, including research, in Europe and Asia. Currently these businesses employ 114 staff who will be affected by this decision.
CAC 40 - Risers
EDF (EDF) € 38.03 +0.60%
EADS (EAD) € 14.87 +0.27%
France Telecom (FTE) € 17.60 +0.11%
Lagardere SCA (MMB) € 27.96 +0.02%
CAC 40 - Fallers
ArcelorMittal SA (MT) € 30.55 -1.85%
Sanofi-Aventis (SAN) € 55.54 -1.82%
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) € 2.36 -1.30%
PPR (PP) € 94.90 -1.21%
Credit Agricole (ACA) € 12.34 -1.04%
Technip (TEC) € 57.06 -0.89%
Lafarge (LG) € 52.99 -0.88%
Veolia Environnement (VIE) € 24.29 -0.88%
AXA (CS) € 15.68 -0.79%
Alstom (ALO) € 47.56 -0.75% |
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| | US Market Report |
Rising streak ends
US blue chips ended their eight day rising streak as lower oil prices and renewed concerns about Greece and its debt problems hit sentiment.
Dow Jones closed down 37 points at 10,741. Nasdaq gave back 16 at 2,374, while the S&P 500 was down 5 at 1,159.
Shares in Palm plunged after the group posted a weaker-than-forecast sales outlook for the fourth quarter. Boeing continued to rise after it announced increased production of 777 and 747 aeroplanes.
Health insurer Aetna says that first quarter earnings will be better than expected. Medical records software provider Cerner Corp is replacing oil services company BJ Services in the S&P 500.
In broker news, Goldman Sachs upped its stance on electronics retailer Best Buy to buy from neutral. Citigroup cut its recommendation for DirectTV Group from buy to hold
US banking giant JPMorgan Chase has reportedly used the same accounting "gimmick" that managed to hide Lehman’s insolvency.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that JPMorgan recorded some repurchase trades in the past decade as sales - the same accounting treatment that spawned Lehman Brothers' Repo 105s.
“The transactions were done in very small amounts and were fully disclosed,” the paper quotes a spokesman for the company as saying.
S&P 500 - Risers
Aetna Inc. (AET) $34.46 +3.67%
Genzyme Corp. (GENZ) $59.45 +3.55%
Cigna Corp. (CI) $37.08 +3.46%
Titanium Metals Corp. (TIE) $14.71 +3.37%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Slm Corp. (SLM) $11.60 -5.46%
Office Depot Inc. (ODP) $7.76 -4.79%
ETrade Financial Corp. (ETFC) $1.57 -4.27%
Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN) $5.28 -4.00%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $54.75 +1.48%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $73.24 +1.02%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
3M Co. (MMM) $81.96 -2.04%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $16.91 -1.86%
American Express Inc. (AXP) $40.33 -1.63%
Bank Of America Corp. (BAC) $16.82 -1.52% |
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| | Monday paper round-up: |
US healthcare, Shell, Rio Tinto
After more than a year of sweating blood, Barack Obama and his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill have emerged victorious with the enactment of the most significant piece of US domestic social reform in more than 40 years.
Declaring “this is what change looks like”, Mr Obama on Sunday night hailed passage of the ten-year, $940bn healthcare reform bill as the culmination of a century of efforts to ensure universal healthcare for Americans, including attempts made by seven of his predecessors in the White House, the FT reports.
Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina have won a board recommendation from Arrow Energy after lifting their joint takeover bid for the Australian energy producer from A$4.45 to A$4.70 a share in cash. The revised bid announced early on Monday values Arrow’s Australian assets, chiefly its reserves of coal-bed methane gas in Queensland, at A$3.5bn (£2.1bn) and excludes the Brisbane-based group’s international operations that are worth an estimated A$400m, the FT reports.
British Airways has been forced to fly empty jumbo jets to cities around the world as it grapples with the first days of a cabin crew strike that was showing no sign of easing on Sunday night. As the Unite union organising the stoppage urged BA board members to “take matters in hand” and help re-start talks, the airline re-instated flights to more than 20 destinations in Europe, the US, Asia and elsewhere after it said extra crew were working despite the three-day strike that began on Saturday, the FT reports.
EMI could be facing a fresh legal battle with Citigroup over an audacious plan to lease its American catalogue to rivals in a £400 million move to stop the bank taking over the business. The billionaire tax exile Guy Hands has hatched the plan to mortgage EMI’s future to avoid breaching banking covenants that would allow Citigroup to take over in June, the Times reports.
Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu has indicated he will plead guilty to bribe taking today as he faces a Shanghai court on charges of industrial espionage and bribery. The trial of Australian and three other Chinese employees of the mining giant, which opened this morning will be closely scrutinised for how Chinese metes out justice to foreign businesses, the Times reports.
Alistair Darling will announce which government departments will be forced to bear the initial burden of cutting borrowing on Wednesday, in a Budget designed to add clarity and credibility to the government’s deficit reduction plan.To counter the widespread view Labour’s heart is not in the painful business of cutting the deficit, Mr Darling will reveal where he intends to make savings in Whitehall costs after 2011, effectively giving departments the starting points for spending negotiations with the Treasury, the FT reports.
The head of Britain’s biggest drinks group has launched a blistering attack on the Government’s duty regime ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, warning that further tax rises could threaten investment and jobs. Simon Litherland, UK managing director of Diageo, said that punitive duty increases imposed already had hit the sector hard and it would be “foolish to take any action which might prevent one of the country’s most successful industries playing its part in the recovery”, the Times reports.
The Government will this week commit to its first deliberate direct involvement in state banking since the 1970s when the Chancellor launches a "green investment bank" to channel cash towards environmental projects, the Telegraph adds.
Bankers vented their anger at proposals from Britain's two main political parties to impose an industry levy that could raise tens of billions of pounds. Senior London bankers said they were "deeply worried" by the proposals that emerged over the weekend for a new tax, adding that if any measure were enacted unilaterally it could have disastrous consequences for the City of London and the financial services industry in the UK, the Telegraph reports.
The fashion retailer New Look could resurrect its £1.7bn flotation plans this week when its board meets to consider if market conditions have improved sufficiently since the deal was postponed last month. Executives at the group, owned by private equity firms Apax and Premira, are set to meet on Tuesday to consider the move, the Independent reports. |
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