Market news round up, upgrades & downgrades courtesy of Cantor Index

14 Feb 2013
Cantor Opening Call
  • The FTSE is seen opening around unchanged on the open today
 
UK Corporate Announcements
  • Rio Tinto announces a wider H2 loss, its largest for 14 years, as it takes a one time charge of $14bn on the value of its aluminium and coal business, but still just ahead of the forecasts
  • Halma confirms its full year targets and states it continues to search for purchase opportunities
  • Pennon states that overall trading remains on track
    AMEC announces full year revenues of £4.15bn up 27% and states that forward visibility was good and order intake was strong
  • Rolls Royce reports a full year underlying pre-tax profit of £1.43bn just under the estimates, and names Ian Davis as its new chairman
 
UK Market News
  • The UK OFT blocked the AG Barr and Britvic merger with the chairman of Britvic accusing the regulator of thwarting ‘national champions’
  • The LSE detailed it is to amend its rules to help the UK compete with Nasdaq as a centre for technology flotation’s
  • Google is suing BT for patent infringement, a year after BT filed its own suit against Google
  • The UK sells £4bn in bonds at 10:30
  • The Day Ahead will return on Monday, UK companies reporting tomorrow are UK Reporting: Anglo American Plc, AAL, Darty Plc, DRTY, Severn Trent Plc, SVT 
 
UK Analyst Changes
  • AG Barr Cut to ‘Equalweight’ at Barclays
  • Britvic Cut to ‘Equalweight’ at Barclays
  • Ferrovial Cut To Underperform Vs Outperform At Rbc
  • Reckitt Benckiser PT Raised 5% to 4,000p at Exane
  • Soco Intl Pt Cut 4% To 390P At Exane; Kept At Neutral
 
UK Insider Buying
  • 3I Group Plc, (III), 1 insider(s) bought 3921 shares, £2.86
  • Avanti Communications, (AVN), 1 insider(s) bought 10000 shares, £2.77
  • Bg Group Plc, (BG/), 1 insider(s) bought 35000 shares, £11.2
  • Coms Plc, (COMS), 2 insider(s) bought 11300000 shares, £0.75
  • Skyepharma Plc, (SKP), 1 insider(s) bought 6163 shares, £0.71
  • Volex Plc, (VLX), 1 insider(s) bought 71849 shares, £0.97
 
UK Insider Selling
  • Arm Holdings Plc, (ARM), 1 insider(s) sold 200000 shares, £9.21
  • Randall & Quilter Inves, (RQIH),  insider(s) sold 10000 shares, £1.34
  • Skyepharma Plc, (SKP),  insider(s) sold 6163 shares, £0.68
  • Plutus Resources Plc, (PLR), 1 insider(s) sold 500000 shares, £0.01
 
FTSE 100 Movers
 
 
Major European Companies Reporting
  • ABB Ltd, R, 1.306,  Actelion Ltd, R, 2.579,  Air Liquide SA, R, 5.149,  AMEC PLC, R, 0.778,  Aurubis AG, Q1, 0.2,  BNP Paribas SA, R, 5.368,  Clariant AG, R, 0.939,  Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co SA, R, 0.787,  Electricite de France SA, R, 2.08,  Gerresheimer AG, R, 2.474,  Gjensidige Forsikring ASA, R, 8.098,  Hufvudstaden AB, R, 3.294,  Iberdrola SA, R, 0.461,  Imerys SA, R, 3.97,  KBC Groep NV, R, 2.992,  Legrand SA, R, 1.977,  Mobimo Holding AG, R, 7.97,  Nestle SA, R, 3.39,  Oriflame Cosmetics SA, R, 2.147,  Pernod-Ricard SA, S1, 3.205,  Petroleum Geo-Services ASA, R, 0.867,  Publicis Groupe SA, R, 3.198,  Randstad Holding NV, R, 2.074,  Renault SA, R, 6.898,  Rio Tinto PLC, R, 4.978,  Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, R, 0.566,  SBM Offshore NV, R, 1.323,  Shire PLC, R, 2.023,  Solvay SA, R, 7.742,  Suez Environnement Co, R, 0.496,  Zurich Insurance Group AG, R, 23.85
 
European Market Summary
  • Angela Merkel has stated that Germany also will take aim at multinationals using international tax rules to avoid tax payments, matching similar statements made recent by David Cameron
  • ProSiebenSat.1 is in the news on talks that Permira Advisors and KKR are selling a stake in the media group for around €500m
  • Pernod Ricard announces H1 EBIT of €1.46bn just ahead of the forecasts of €1.43bn
  • Renault announces 2012 EBIT ex items of €729m, ahead of the forecasts of €698m seen
  • Swiss voters are putting pressure on the government to set up legal limits on executive pay
  • G20 finance ministers and deputy central bankers gather in Moscow
 
Major US Stock Movers After Hours
  • Weight Watchers dropped 15% after it announces Q4 profit fell 8.9% and as it gives a weak guidance
  • Cisco announces Q2 revenues of $12.1bn ahead of the estimates of $12.06bn and an adjusted EPS of $0.51 ahead of the estimates of $0.48
  • Nvidia reported Q1 sales under the forecasts and came off 2% on the news
  • A coalition of US business groups has written to the European Commission objecting to the ‘unilateral imposition of a global financial transaction tax, on the planned financial transaction tax across 11 member states which could raise as much as €35bn
 
S&P 500 Companies Reporting
  • Agilent Technologies Inc, Q1, 0.665,  Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc, Q4, 0.529,  Apache Corp, Q4, 2.289,  BorgWarner Inc, Q4, 1.137,  CBS Corp, Q4, 0.708,  DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc, Q4, 1.601,  DIRECTV, Q4, 1.141,  Discovery Communications Inc, Q4, 0.764,  Molson Coors Brewing Co, Q4, 0.637,  PepsiCo Inc, Q4, 1.052,  PPL Corp, Q4, 0.458,  Vulcan Materials Co, Q4, -0.088,  Waste Management Inc, Q4, 0.595
 
US Market News
  • AMR Corp and US Airways Group could announce their planned merger as early as today
  • Time Warner is in talks to sell its magazines titles for as much as $2.4bn
  • The FT writes that the SEC is planning to use a computerised tool that will automatically trigger alerts on suspicious accounting at publicly traded companies
  • Ackman continues his attack against Herbalife and states that if the US FTC misses looking at the matter its equal to the SEC missing Madoff, and states that there is nothing inherently wrong with Multi Level Marketing
 
Overnight Market News
  • Japan’s economy shrunk in the last quarter, down an annualised 0.4% from the revised 3.8% fall  in the previous quarter, Asian markets have pushed up to fresh 18 month highs as stimulus talk continues
  • Inghams Enterprises the Australian based poultry farmer is reportedly considering an IPO, as it put itself up for sale back in July, and is looking to raise around 41bn
 
Economic Data Due
  • 07:00 Germany Q4 GDP sa, -0.5% exp. 0.2% previous
  • 10:00 Eurozone Q4 GDP sa, -0.4% exp. -0.1% previous
  • 13:30 US Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, 360k exp. 366k previous
 
Economic Events
  • 11:00 EU to Propose Financial Transaction Tax for 11 States
  • G20 Finance Ministers Meet
 
Eurozone GDP
Swen Lorenz: