Wednesday broker round-up UPDATE
18th Sep 2013 08:28
African Minerals: Canaccord Genuity reduces target price from 410p to 330p, while its buy recommendation remains unaltered. Amlin: Goldman Sachs moves target price from 405p to 420p and reiterates a neutral rating. Andor Technology: Investec takes target price from 360p to 410p leaving its buy rec
Read moreLondon open: Stocks flat as investors turn cautious ahead of Fed
18th Sep 2013 08:16
Markets opened broadly flat on Wednesday morning as investors refrained from building positions ahead of the conclusion of this month's all-important Federal Reserve policy meeting. However, with an announcement from the US central bank not due out until after markets close this evening, there will
Read moreSmiths delivers mixed bag and promises special dividend
18th Sep 2013 07:03
A difficult trading environment produced a mixed bag of results from diversified engineer Smith Group, which included promise of an extra 30p per share special dividend. Headline group revenue grew 2% as underlying growth at the Detection, John Crane and Flex-Tek divisions more than offset decline
Read moreThursday broker round-up UPDATE
29th Aug 2013 09:48
Afren: Westhouse Securities shifts target price from 160p to 165p and reiterates a buy recommendation. BAE Systems: Bank of America raises target price from 328p to 412p, while staying with its underperform rating. Cape: JP Morgan takes target price from 308p to 323p and stays with its overweight
Read moreLondon close: HSBC weighs on markets despite strong data
5th Aug 2013 16:32
Worse-than-expected results from the FTSE 100's largest constituent, HSBC, hit markets hard on Monday though losses were limited by some strong economic data from across the globe. The FTSE 100 finished down 28 points at 6,620. Before HSBC's results were released, services data from the UK, Eurozo
Read moreLondon midday: Markets shrug off strong data as HSBC disappoints
5th Aug 2013 11:45
Economic data came in strong on Monday morning but a poor reaction to results from banking giant HSBC was weighing on markets in London with the FTSE 100 erasing its earlier gains by midday. HSBC, the Footsie's largest company by market capitalisation (around £135bn by today's prices), disappointed
Read moreLondon open: Stocks rise after China services data
5th Aug 2013 08:27
Markets opened with solid gains on Monday morning on the back of decent data from China, as sentiment recovered after a disappointing US jobs report last week. With US non-farm payrolls coming in below expectations on Friday, it has now sparked hopes that the Federal Reserve could delay tapering st
Read moreSmiths Group sinks after rejecting approach for medical division
2nd Aug 2013 16:57
A late announcement from technology firm Smiths Group sent the FTSE 100 firmly into the red on Friday after the company revealed that it had rebuffed an approach for its medical division. Smiths said back in May that it had received a "preliminary approach" but has now confirmed that it could reach
Read moreLondon close: Disappointing US jobs report sparks late sell-off
2nd Aug 2013 16:27
After a relatively quiet start to the trading session, markets sunk sharply into the red on Friday afternoon after the US economy added far fewer jobs than forecast in July. Non-farm payrolls increased by just 162,000 last month, lower than the downwardly revised 188,000 increase in June and much w
Read moreFTSE 100 movers: IMI gains after Citi comments
19th Jul 2013 11:56
Engineering firm IMI was a high riser on the Footsie on Friday after Citigroup named it a 'Most Preferred' stock. The broker said: "We see further significant margin upside at IMI, driven by both mix and restructuring. A strong balance sheet and yield are both supportive, too." In contrast, techn
Read moreLondon midday: FTSE 100 pulls back from seven-week high
19th Jul 2013 11:25
Mining stocks were among the worst performers on Friday morning, providing a drag on the FTSE 100 as risk appetite declined following the index's seven-week high reached the day before. London's benchmark index closed at 6,634 on Thursday; the last time the index finished higher was on May 30th whe
Read moreLondon midday: Stocks higher after UK retail sales, Bernanke
18th Jul 2013 11:35
An improvement in UK retail sales and comments from Ben Bernanke were lifting markets higher on Thursday morning, with London Stock Exchange leading the risers on the FTSE 100 after a strong first-quarter update. UK retail sales increased in June as shoppers snapped up discounted goods in departmen
Read moreThursday tips round-up: Severn Trent, Smiths Group, Barclays
18th Jul 2013 06:36
Severn Trent's stocks have plunged since rebuffing a potential bid by Long River Partners, a consortium led by Borealis Infrastructure Management, which offered £21.25 a share for the group last month. The offer was at a premium of about 28 per cent to the group's regulatory asset base (RAB), which
Read moreLondon close: Stocks rally after Bernanke comments on QE
17th Jul 2013 16:58
Markets rallied on Wednesday afternoon following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who said that quantitative easing (QE) is 'by no means on a pre-set course' and still depends on how the economic recovery plays out. "For markets, that's good news as the US economic recovery, thou
Read moreLondon midday: Unanimous MPC vote on QE takes markets by surprise
17th Jul 2013 11:53
Minutes from this month's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting took markets by surprise on Wednesday morning, with the FTSE 100 slipping into the red after it was revealed that policymakers voted unanimously to leave the Bank of England's (BoE) bond-buying programme unchanged. Investors were lar
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