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Good Morning ShareCrazies
This Morning in London major shares opened higher as Wall Street rebounded from heavy loses yesterday. Prudential (PRU) was the top riser, up 74.5 at 693 on reports in the 21st Century Business Herald that Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd, the country's second largest life insurer, may take a stake worth 100 bln yuan in the group. At 10:30 the FTSE-100 was up 145 points at 5,723.2 after closing up 161.9 points at 5,740.1 following the Fed emergency rate cut by 75 basis points, while the FTSE-250 was up 340.5 points at 9,601.1.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
Bear Sterns has outperform on Shire (SHP) and has peer perform on Pearson (PSON) (raising EPS estimates).
Credit Suisse has outperform on Land Securities (LAND) (cutting the price target to 1934p from 2108) and has neutral on William Morrison (MRW) (raising the target to 320p from 310p) and Home Retail (HOME) (cutting the price target to 305p from 360p).
The broker has underperform on Pearson (PSON) (cutting the price target to 630p from 680p, suggesting switching in to Reed Elsevier (REL), where the broker has an outperform recommendation.
HSBC has overweight on New Star Asset Management (NSAM) (cutting the price target to 140p from 300p).
Lehman has downgraded Debenhams (DEB) to underweight from equal-weight and Kingfisher (KGF) equal-weight from overweight and upgraded Home Retail (HOME) to overweight from equal-weight.
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Night in New York stocks fell for a fifth straight session, but largely recovered from an opening rout sparked by a global sell-off as equities investors drew some reassurance from a massive, emergency interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve Board. Down nearly 465 points after the open, the Dow Jones recouped the bulk of its early losses, and ended down by 128.1 points at 11,971.2, below the 12,000 mark. The S&P was down 14.69 points to 1,310.50, while the Nasdaq dropped 47.75 points to 2,292.27.
On this day in:-
1997 - The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra abandoned its 155-year ban on women musicians.
1990 - In Great Britain, storm force gales, with winds up to 115-mph, caused at least 4 deaths.
1985 - A debate in the House of Lords was show live on television for the first time.
1983 - Swedish tennis champion Bjorn Borg announced that he was giving up competitive tennis.
1973 - President Nixon announced the Vietnam Peace deal on National Television.
1963 - Double agent Kim Philby defected to Russia.
1960 - The American Navy bathyscaphe 'Trieste' descended to a record depth of 35,820 feet in the Pacific Ocean.
1943 - World War II: Great British forces captured the city of Tripoli in Libya from the Germans.
1941 - World War II: the North African coastal town of Tobruk was captured by German troops.
1931 - The official opening of Whipsnade Zoo near Dunstable.
WEEKLY DIARY
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Compiled in association with HB PLC and WH Ireland Ltd
