This Morning in London headine shares gained in opening deals, lifted by Wall Street closing at record highs last night. Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY) rose 11.5p to 612p after confirming its intention to demerge its Americas beverages business as it reported strong third-quarter growth from the confectionery division. The group was forced to abandon plans for an outright sale of the beverages business due to the crisis in the global credit markets. Cadbury said, while it continues to be committed to the principle of maximising shareowner value, it does not believe current market conditions will facilitate an acceptable sale process. As such, it is proceeding with plans for a demerger. By 9:30 the FTSE-100 was down 22.5 points at 6,592.9 with the FTSE-250 ahead 5.6 points at 11,433.4.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
Citigroup upgrades Hogg Robinson (HRG) to buy from hold, cutting target to 85p from 90p, reiterates buy for Hochschild Mining (HOC), raising target to 425p from 400p, has a sell and 180p target for G4 Securicor (GFS) and in a note on insurers has a hold and 900p target for Aviva (AV.), a hold and €20.5 target for Irish Life & Permanent (IPM), a buy and 165p target for Legal & General (LGEN) and a buy and 875p target for Prudential (PRU).
Collins Stewart has a buy and £18.50 target for Unilever (ULVR).
Credit Suisse has an outperform for SABMiller (SAB), raising target to £16.20 from £15.50 and retains its overweight stance in the mining sector.
Deutsche Bank upgrades Go-Ahead Group (GOG) to buy from hold, but downgrades National Express (NEX) and FirstGroup (FGP) to hold from buy.
The broker re-instates Nokia (NOK) as a buy with a €28 target.
Exane BNP Paribas upgrades SABMiller (SAB) to neutral from underperform.
Goldman Sachs upgrades Standard Chartered (STAN) to buy from neutral.
ING downgrades SABMiller (SAB) to hold from buy while raising target to £15.75.
Lehman Bros reiterates overweight for Barclays (BARC) with an 800p target and reiterates overweight SABMiller (SAB), raising target to £16.30 from £15.50.
The broker downgrades HBOS (HBOS) to underweight from overweight, cutting target to £10.28 from £10.46.
Merrill Lynch has Standard Chartered (STAN) as its core play in Asian decoupling.
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Night in New York stocks climbed, with the Dow Jones and the S&P both setting record intra-day and closing highs, after the release of Federal Reserve commentary cemented thinking of another interest-rate cut ahead. The Dow Jones ended 120.8 points ahead, at 14,164.5, a record close, after hitting an all-time intraday high of 14,167.00 earlier on. The S&P settled 12.57 points up to end at 1,565.15, a record close, after setting a new intra-day high of 1,565.15. Whilst the Nasdaq climbed 16.54 points to 2,803.91.
On this day in:-
1997 - At the British Airways stand at the Conservative Party Conference, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave the airline a 'handbagging' by placing a white handkerchief over the model of an aircraft with the new style logo.
1980 - Quebec’s Labour and Immigration Minister, Pierre Laporte, was been kidnapped. He was seized from his home in Montreal by two men armed with machineguns. The kidnappers were thought to be part of the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), whose goal was independence for French Quebec from Canada.
1975 - After a divorce in early 1970’s followed by several failed reconcilliations, actor Richard Burton and actress Elizabeth Taylor remarried in a remote village in Botswana. The couple divorced for a second time in 1976.
1973 - American Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign, after being found guilty and given a $10,000 fine for tax evasion.
1972 - Northern Irish peace campaigner Mairead Corrigan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1972 - Sir John Betjemen became Poet Laureate.
1970 - The Pacific islands of Fiji gained full independence.
1964 - The opening ceremony at the start of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
1957 - A major radiation leak is detected at the Windscale Nuclear Plant in Cumbria following an accident 3-days earlier.
1926 - American singer Bing Crosby cut his first record.
1914 - During World War I, Germans forces capture the Belgian city of Antwerp.
1913 - The building of the Panama Canal was completed, linking the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and avoiding the perilous and lengthy voyage around the southern tip of South America.
1911 - China’s Imperial Dynasty was forced to abdicate and the country was proclaimed a republic by its new leader, Sun Yat-Sen.
1907 - At the opening of the Hungarian Parliament, there were demonstrations and strikes in Budapest demanding adult suffrage.
1903 - In Britain, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union to fight for female emancipation.
1886 - The dinner jacket made its first appearance in public, when worn by its creator at the Tuxedo Park Country Club, in New York.
1881 - In London, the Savoy Theatre, Great Britain’s first public building to be lit by electricity, opened with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Patience’.
