This Morning in London headline shares were firmly higher in early deals, with heavyweight mining issues leading the charge. Rio Tinto was a strong gainer, up 185p at 5,500p after local weekend press reports reinforced rumours Friday that China will spark a bidding war with BHP Billiton for the Anglo-Australian mining giant with an initial offer of about $200bn. At 9:50 the FTSE-100 was up 24.5 points at 6,286.6 with the FTSE-250 ahead 51.9 points at 10,583.1.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
Citigroup has downgraded JJB Sports to sell from hold (cutting the price target to 120p from 165p) and has upgraded Paypoint to buy from hold (raising the price target to 700p from 650p.
Credit Suisse has downgraded Premier Oil to neutral from outperform.
Deutsche says buy Smith & Nephew and Diageo.
Dresdner Kleinwort has downgraded AstraZeneca to sell from reduce (2000p price target).
HSBC has initiated coverage of Cobham appending an outperform recommendation and of Ultra Electronics appending a neutral recommendation.
Lehman has upgraded National Grid to overweight from equal-weight, United Utilities to equal from underweight and Kelda Group to equal-weight from underweight.
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Friday in New York shares rallied and helped to recover some of the week's losses, as investors bottom-fished the battered financial stocks, at the same time hoping that retailers fared well on what the American’s call “Black Friday,” traditionally what is considered the most important day of the year for sales. Markets in the US were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, and on Friday trading closed early at 1p.m. The Dow Jones added 181.84-points to close up 12980.88, the Nasdaq put on 34.45-points to 2596.60 and the S&P closed up 23.93-points at 1440.70. On the week, the markets recorded losses, with the Dow falling 1.5%, the Nasdaq losing 1.6%, while the S&P was off 1.2%.
On this day:-
1703 - Severe gales across England left 8,000 dead and thousands of buildings destroyed or badly damaged.
1812 - In the United States, James Maddison was elected President defeating De Witt Clinton.
1832 - Trams were introduced in the streets of New York.
1857 - The first Australian Parliament opened in Melbourne.
1864 - Oxford professor Charles Dodgson presented a little girl called Alice Liddle with a story she had inspired him to write called Alice in Wonderland. It was written under the pen name of Lewis Carroll.
1867 - Mrs Lily Maxwell of Manchester cast her vote in a parliamentary election. She had been placed on the electoral register in error and had to be escorted by a bodyguard to protect her from opponents to women's suffrage.
1922 - Great British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen's Egyptian tomb in over 3,000 years. Carter discovered the entrance to the tomb of the teenage pharaoh 3-weeks before, hidden in debris near the excavated tomb of King Ramses VI. Tutankhamen's sealed chambers were miraculously intact, and inside was a collection of several thousand objects, including a gold coffin containing the mummy of the boy-king. Most of these treasures are now housed in the Cairo Museum.
1940 - World War II: The Germans ordered 500,000 Polish Jews to live inside a walled ghetto in Warsaw.
1966 - French President Charles de Gaulle opened the world's first tidal wave power station in Brittany.
1968 - The Great British rock group Cream, with members Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, appeared at a farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
1983 - Gold bars, worth a total of £25-million were stolen from the Brink's Mat Security warehouse at Heathrow Airport near London.
