This Morning in London shares were modestly higher in early deals, ahead of minutes from the BoE's rate-setting meeting. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) made strong early gains, up 12.5p at 527p, as encouragement was provided by comments from Lehman Brothers. The broker said it it holds the view that the market has still to incorporate the value-creation potential from the acquisition of certain ABN assets. It has re-started its coverage of Banco Santander SA with an 'overweight' stance, following the Royal Bank of Scotland Group-led consortium's acquisition of ABN Amro. At 9:045 the FTSE-100 was up 9.3 points at 6,623.6 with the FTSE-250 ahead 87.2 points at 11,453.4.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
ABN Amro upgrades Barratt Development (BDEV) to hold from sell and St Ives (SIV) to add from hold, reiterates buy Ryanair (RYA), raising target to €6.25 from €5.75, raising estimates, has a hold on Cadbury (CBRY) and a buy and 42p target for Innovation Group (TIG).
Altium Securities reiterates buy Restaurant Group (RTN) with a 380p target and has a hold and 300p target for Britvic (BVIC).
Bear Stearns has Bradford & Bingley (BB.) as a short-term trading buy.
Citigroup has a buy for ITV (ITV) cutting target to 135p from 140p, has a buy and £13 target for Bellway (BWY) and a buy and £14.70 target for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Credit Suisse upgrades Drax (DRX) to neutral from underperform with a 580p target.
ING has Michael Page (MPI) as its top pick in the staffing sector and reiterates buy for Hays (HAS).
WH Ireland reiterates buy Dechra Pharma (DPH) with a 405p target and has an outperform for Restaurant Group (RTN), seeing fair value in excess of 350p.
KBC Peel Hunt reiterates buy and 62p target for Sportingbet (SBT) and has a buy and 75p target for MTI Wireless Edge (MWE).
The broker has a hold for Restaurant Group (RTN).
Landsbanki has a buy for UK Coal (UKC), a buy for Angus & Ross (AGU), a buy for RAB Capital (RAB), a hold for Rio Tinto (RIO) and a hold for Shire (SHP).
Lehman Bros, in a note on UK pubs, initiates coverage of Punch Taverns (PUB) with an overweight and £14 target, Enterprise Inns (ETI) with an overweight and 800p target and Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) with an underweight and 700p target.
JP Morgan has a neutral for Cable & Wireless (CW.), raising target to 212p from 205p, reiterates neutral for Burberry (BRBY) and has an underweight for Debenhams (DEB).
Numis has a reduce and 240p target for Blacks Leisure (BSLA), an add and 294p target for Bradford & Bingley (BB.), a reduce and 301p target for Cattles (CTT), a buy and 188p target for LSL Property Services (LSL), a buy and 407p target for Restaurant Group (RTN) and a buy and 81p target for Sportingbet (SBT).
Seymour Pierce has buys for Cambrian Mining (CBM) with a 150p target and Origo Sino-India (OSI) and reiterates underperform for Home Retail (HOME).
SG Securities initiates coverage of Hammerson (HMSO) with a hold and £11 target and British Land (BLND) with a sell and 960p target.
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Night in New York Wall Street shares closed lower ahead of key technology results as investors contended with warnings from financial institutions that the recent credit crunch would dent earnings in the fourth quarter. Down more than 100 points at one point in the session, the Dow Jones finished down 71.9 points at 13,912.9, with 22 of its 30 components ending in the red. The S&P fell 10.18 points to end at 1,538.53, while the Nasdaq gave up 16.1 points to end at 2,763.9.
On this day in:-
1996 - England international footballer Paul Gascoigne was accused of beating up his wife Sheryl at a hotel in Scotland.
1991 - Four independent television companies: - TV-am, Thames, TVS and TSW lost their licences to broadcast following a 'sealed bid' system of awarding the franchises by the Independent Television Commission.
1980 - In Rome, the first ever meeting between a Great British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and the Pope, during a State Visit to the Vatican.
1973 - The start of a major world oil crisis, when oil producing Arab states increased prices by 70% and cut production in protest at US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War against Egypt.
1965 - In America, thousands joined a major anti-Vietnam War demonstration.
1962 - Emerging 'pop' group 'The Beatles' made their first appearance on Great British TV.
1956 - The Queen opened Calder Hall in Cumbria, Great Britian's first large scale atomic energy station.
1951 - The German-made Porsche was the main attraction at the opening of the Motor Show in London.
1945 - In Argentina, thousands of trade unionists marched through Buenos Aires demanding that Colonel Juan Peron was released from prison, and re-instated at the head of Government.
1936 - In London, newspaper owner Lord Beaverbrook promised the future King, Edward VIII, that he would arrange for the Great British press to remain silent on the subject of his relationship with American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson.
1934 - In Germany, an announcement from Berlin said that Adolf Hitler was to keep his titles of Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor for life.
1931 - In America, Chicago mobster Al Capone was jailed for 11-years for tax evasion.
1930 - France announced the building of a new line of defences along its frontier with Germany. The hugely expensive line of concrete, pill boxes and gun emplcements, known as the 'Maginot Line', proved pointless. At the start of World War II German troops entered France after first invading Belgium.
1927 - In Great Britain, Mona Maclennan admitted that her claim to have swum the English Channel in a record time of 13-hours and 12-minutes was a hoax.
1914 - An earthquake centred on Greece killed more than 3,000 people.
1860 - The world's first professional golf tournament was held at Prestwick in Scotland, and won by Willie Park.
1777 - Great British military commander General Burgoyne surrendered his troops to the American Colonists led by General Horatio Gates at Saratoga during the American War of Independence.
1651 - Charles II was defeated at the Battle of Worcester, and fled to France after famously escaping from Oliver Cromwell's forces by hiding in an oak tree.
