This Morning in London major shares were slightly firmer in early deals, with Resolution (RSL) down as Standard Life (SL.) pulled its bid. Northern Rock (NRK) was the top riser up 12p at 157p, Barclays (BARC) added 15.25p to 489.75p, HBOS (HBOS) was 15p higher to 768p and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) added 5.5p to 408.25p. However, losses were seen in HSBC (HSBA), down 6.5p at 834p. At 9:30 the FTSE-100 was up 43.4 points at 6,348.3 with the FTSE-250 ahead 94.2 points at 10,953.3.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
Citigroup has upgraded Dairy Crest (DCG) to buy from hold.
Credit Suisse has downgraded ICAP (IAP) to neutral from outperform and has initiated coverage of Go-Ahead Group (GOG) appending an outperform recommendation and Arriva (ARI) appending an underperform recommendation.
The broker has neutral on National Express (NEX), FirstGroup (FGP) and Stagecoach (SGC).
WH Ireland reiterate outperform on Hornby (HRN) and have upgraded Latchways (LTC) to outperform from market-perform.
JP Morgan has downgraded the Water Sector to underweight vs utilities and has downgraded Pennon (PNN) to underweight from neutral (raising the price target to 620p from 612p).
The broker has initiated coverage of Whitbread (WTB) appending a neutral recommendation and an 1800p price target.
Morgan Stanley has initiated coverage of HSBC (HSBA) appending an underweight recommendation and a 800p price target and has downgraded ITV (ITV) to underweight from equal-weight.
UBS has upgraded Redrow (RDW) to neutral from sell.
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Friday in New York a slide in the Nasdaq wiped out hopes that technology shares could pull the market out of the subprime pain felt by financial institutions. Stocks experienced another slide on Friday, with the Dow Jones finishing off 223 points at 13,042, capping a week of pain that shaved 4.1% from the blue chip index. Hit by continued weakness among financial stocks, the S&P lost 21 points to 1,453, adding up to a 3.7% drop on the week. Yet most of the bleeding was seen in the Nasdaq, which fell 2.5% to 2,627 on Friday. For the week, the Nasdaq shed a breathtaking 6.5%.
On this day in:-
1997 - Judges in Brazil rejected Great Britain's application for Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs to be extradited to serve the rest of his prison sentence.
1981 - The second launch of the US Space Shuttle Columbia - the first manned spacecraft capable of being sent back into space.
1980 - More than 3-years after its launch, the U.S. planetary probe Voyager 1 edged within 116,000-miles of Saturn, the second-largest planet in the solar system. The photos beamed 950-million miles back to California stunned scientists. The high-resolution images showed a world that seemed to confound all known laws of physics. Saturn had not four, but hundreds of rings. The rings appeared to dance, buckle, and interlock in ways never thought possible. Two rings were intertwined, or braided, and pictures clearly showed dark radial spokes moving inside the rings in the direction of rotation. Voyager 2, a sister spacecraft, arrived at Saturn in August 1981. The Voyagers also discovered three new moons around Saturn and a huge storm thousands of miles across.
1951 - The first television transmission of 'Come Dancing', on BBC.
1948 - Japan's former premier Hideki Tojo and several other Japanese criminals from World War II, were sentenced to death.
1944 - World War II: Tirpitz, the last of Germany's fleet of unsinkable battleships, was sunk in a Norwegian fjord by Lancaster bombers.
1941 - World War II: Germans troops reached the outskirts of Moscow.
1940 - World War II: The Battle of Taranto.
1931 - Sir Edward Elgar opened the Abbey Road recording studios in London - later to made famous as the recording studio used by The Beatles.
1927 - In Russia, Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and Joseph Stalin became leader.
1927 - Great Britain's first automatic telephone exchange opened in London.
1859 - Flying trapeze artiste Jules Leotard made his debut at the Cirque Napoleon in Paris.
1847 - The first use of chloroform as an anesthetic during surgery.
1660 - English author John Bunyan was arrested for preaching without a licence. Refusing to give up preaching, he remained in prison for 12-years.
