This Morning in London major shares were fairly flat in early deals, with Northern Rock (NRK) leading bankers lower. At 9:55 the FTSE-100 was up 14.8 points at 6,745.5 with the FTSE-250 ahead 16.4 points at 11,592.7.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
Altium Securities downgrades Goal Soccer Centres (GOAL) to hold from buy, cutting target to 410p from 440p and reiterates buy for Powerleague (PWR), raising target to 120p from 110p.
Cazenove reiterates underperform for Northern Rock (NRK).
The broker has an outperform for Barclays (BARC).
Citigroup has a hold and 900p target for Aviva (AV.), a buy and 650p target for Catlin (CGL), a buy and 165p target for Legal & General (LGEN), a buy and 875p target for Prudential (PRU), reiterates hold and 470p target for WH Smith (SMWH), has a hold for C&C Group (CCR), cutting target to 5 euros from 6 and a buy for CSR (CSR), reducing target price.
Evolution Securities upgrades Rank Group (RNK) to hold from reduce with a 145p target, reiterates buy BAE Systems (BA.) with a 590p target, has a buy and 300p target for Filtrona (FLTR), a buy and £15.50 target for SABMiller (SAB), a buy for Travis Perkins (TPK), a buy for UK Coal (UKC), raising target to 675p from 625p, a buy and 225p target for Waterman (WTM) and a buy and increased 350p target for Weir Group (WEIR).
Goldman Sachs has a buy for Vodafone (VOD), raising target to 195p from 283p.
WH Ireland reiterates outperform for Spring (SRG) with a fair value in excess of 650p.
KBC Peel Hunt reiterates reduce for Paragon (PAG) and has a hold for Trading Emissions (TRE).
Lehman Bros reiterates overweight and £16.30 target for SABMiller (SAB).
JP Morgan has an underweight and 130pm target for Legal & General (LGEN) and reiterates underweight for Tesco (TSCO), raising estimates.
Morgan Stanley has an equal weight for AstraZeneca (AZN), raising target to £26.77 from £25.04 and an equal-weight and £14 target for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Friday in New York shares closed up and thereby lifted the major indices to modest gains for the week, as investors were heartened by positive economic data that included healthy retail sales in September and in-line results from industrial bellwether General Electric. The Dow Jones added 77.96-points to 14093.08, the Nasdaq added 33.48-points to 2805.68, while the S&P put on 7.39-points to 1561.80. On the week, the Dow Jones rose 0.2%, the Nasdaq added 1.2%, while the S&P put on 0.9%.
On this day in:-
1887 - Preston North End scored a record number of goals in an FA Cup tie, each player except the goalkeeper netting in their 26-0 win over Hyde.
1895 - Great Britain's first motor show took place on the Agricultural Show-ground at Tunbridge Wells, in Kent.
1917 - "Mata Hari", a Dutch spy, was shot in Paris after being found guilty of conducting espionage for Germany.
1946 - Nazi war criminal, Hermann Goering, poisoned himself in prison in Nuremberg a few hours before he was due to be hanged.
1951 - The Liberals conducted the first televised party political broadcast on the BBC, given by Lord Samuel.
