This Morning in London major shares were sharply lower in early deals. Rentokil Initial (RTO) was the biggest faller, dropping 25.8p to 120.9p. The drop came after it said fourth-quarter profits from its express parcels delivery business City Link are likely to be as much as £10m below expectations, which will have a similar impact on the results for the group as a whole. In reaction, Seymour Pierce downgraded its stance to 'hold' from 'buy', highlighting disappointment at the company's unexpected announcement that profits in the I Parcels division will be £10m below expectations. Also suffering after it's trading update was Rexam (REX), giving away 43.5p to 444p. The world's largest beverage can maker said today its second-half results will be in line with internal expectations but impacted by higher oil prices and weaker US dollar. At 9:45 the FTSE-100 was down 94.4 points at 6,465.4 with the FTSE-250 off 135.3 points at 10,507.7.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
ABN Amro has a sell for HSBC (HSBA), a hold for Persimmon (PSN), a buy for TUI Travel (TUI) and an add for Elementis (ELM).
Altium has buys for Game Group (GMG), Mears (MER), Northgate Information Solutions (NIS), Spice (SPI) and a hold for Morgan Sindall (MGNS).
Bear Stearns has an outperform for HBOS (HBOS).
The broker has an underperform and 542p fair value for Cadbury (CBRY).
Citigroup initiates coverage of Randgold Resources (RRS) with a hold and £20 target and downgrades Aquarius Platinum (AQP) to hold from buy.
Credit Suisse has downgraded Pearson (PSON) to underperform from neutral.
Daniel Stewart has buys for FDM (FDM) and Xpertise (XPG).
Evolution initiates coverage of Paddy Power (PAP) with a buy and €26 target.
HSBC initiates coverage of Aquarius Platinum (AQP) with a neutral and 600p target and upgrades International Personal Finance (IPF) to neutral from underweight.
WH Ireland has an outperform for Spice (SPI), a speculative buy for Lithic Metals and Energy (LMY), a speculative buy for Infoserve (INFS), an outperform for Mattioli Woods (MTW) and a buy for International Personal Finance (IPF).
KBC Peel Hunt has a buy for Morgan Sindall (MGNS) and a hold for Unite Group (UTG).
Numis has an add and 300p target for Axis-Shield (ASD), a buy and 595p target for BAE Systems (BA.), a hold and 301p target for Cattles (CTT), a buy and £11.54 target for HBOS (HBOS), a buy and 170p target for International Ferro Metals (IFL), a reduce and 78p target for ITV (ITV), an add and £13.37 target for Morgan Sindall (MGNS), a sell and 50p target for Northgate Information Solutions (NIS) and an add and 415p target for Trinity Mirror (TNI).
Sanford Bernstein has outperforms for Sainsbury (SBRY) and Tesco (TSCO) and a market perform for William Morrison (MRW).
Seymour Pierce has a hold and 680p target for Amec (AMEC), initiates coverage of Antisoma (ASM) with a buy and 44p target, downgrades Aquarius Platinum (AQP) to hold from outperform, has a buy for Oxford Biomedica (OXB), an outperform for Reed Elsevier (REL), downgrades Rentokil Initial (RTO) to hold from buy with a 140p target, has a hold and 550p target for Rexam (REX), an outperform and 500p target for Serco (SRP), an underperform for Signet (SIG) an outperform and £18.50 target for Travis Perkins (TPK), an outperform for Trinity Mirror (TNI) and a buy for Zamano (ZMNO).
SG Securites re-starts coverage of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) with a buy and £15 target, has a hold and £23 target for AstraZeneca (AZN), a sell and £10.40 target for Shire (SHP) and upgrades Xstrata (XTA) to hold from sell.
Last Night in New York stocks returned to positive territory after investors brushed aside a late-session drop and weighed a plan by the Federal Reserve and four other central banks to ease the global credit crunch. Up 271 points early on, the Dow Jones fell more than 100 points in the final hour of trade only to recover as the session neared the close. The Dow closed 41.1 points higher at 13,473.9, with 19 of its 30 components ending ahead. The S&P gained 8.94 points to end at 1,486.59, while the Nasdaq closed up 18.79 points to 2,671.14.
On this day in:-
1991 - Leaders of Kazakhstan; Tadzhikistan; Kirgizia; Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan agreed to join the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
1990 - The ANC President, Oliver Tambo, returned to South Africa after 30 years in exile.
1989 - The former ANC prisoner Nelson Mandela visited South African President F.W.de Klerk to discuss an end to racial conflict.
1981 - Martial Law was imposed in Poland and leaders of the workers union, Solidarity, were arrested.
1976 - The first oil was brought to Great Britain from the Brent Oil Field in the North Sea.
1974 - Egypt demanded a 50-year freeze on Israel's population, as a condition for peace in the Middle East.
1973 - The Government ordered a 3-day working week following an Arab oil embargo and industrial action by the country's miners.
1972 - Apollo 17 astronauts, on the last US moon mission, unveiled a plaque dedicated to peace on the lunar surface.
1967 - A military coup in Greece overthrew the monarchy - King Constantine fled to Rome with his family.
1944 - World War II: Japanese suicide planes crashed into US Cruiser Nashville killing 130 crew.
1939 - World War II: The start of the Battle of the River Plate when Great British warships attacked the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee. The battle finished when the captain of the Graf Spee scuttled his ship at the entrance to Montivideo harbour.
1937 - Japanese troops took Nanking City in China.
1930 - The last public appearance of prima ballerina Anna Pavlova.
1921 - Great Britain; France; Japan and the USA signed the Washington Treaty respecting each other's rights over possessions in the Pacific.
1903 - Ice Cream cones were patented by Italo Marcione of New York.
1884 - A coin operated weighing machine was patented by Percy Everitt.
1867 - In London, 12 people were killed when Irish terrorists blew up the outer wall of Clerkenwell Prison, in an attempt to rescue a jailed colleague.
1862 - American Civil War: Confederate forces, commanded by Robert E Lee, defeated the Union Army at Fredericksburg.
1843 - On the first day of publication, Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol sold more than 6,000 copies.
1808 - The Spanish capital, Madrid, surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte.
1789 - Austrian Netherlands declared independence as Belgium.
1577 - Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth, on his voyage around the world.
1570 - Denmark, in the Peace of Stettin, agreed to recognise the independence of Sweden.
