This Morning in London shares moved higher in opening trade as investors gave a warm reaction to Cairn Energy's (CNE.L) plans to float its Indian business. Cairn unveiled its plan to raise about $1.8 billion from the floatation of its Indian operation. Shares in the company rose 1.8 percent to £17.84. Other mining companies also moved back to the forefront of the leaderboard, tracking firmer commodities prices and rises on Asian equities indices for the sector. BHP Billiton (BLT.L) was 1.1 percent higher at £10.23 and Xstrata (XTA.L) rose £22.65. Rio Tinto (RIO.L) was 0.9 percent stronger at £29.19 with Vedanta Resources (VED.L) up 0.3 percent at £14.66. The FTSE-100 started the session 10 points higher at 6,138.3, with the FTSE-250 up 0.2 percent at 10,394.1.
Dr Who scores TV awards hat-trick
Doctor Who has scooped three prizes at the National Television Awards in a repeat of its success last year. The BBC sci-fi drama won most popular drama, most popular actress for Billie Piper and most popular actor for David Tennant, who plays the Time Lord. Top Gear, whose presenter Richard Hammond is recovering from an accident while filming, won the factual award. Noel Edmonds' comeback Channel 4 show Deal Or No Deal was best daytime show, although the star could not attend. The awards, voted for by the public, were presented at a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London, hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald. The Duke of Edinburgh sent a video message of congratulations to the veteran presenter, Sir David Attenborough who was given a lifetime achievement award. Terri Irwin, the wife of the late conservationist Steve presented him with the award. Channel 4's Big Brother won the reality title for the third year running, beating Celebrity Big Brother, The Apprentice and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Big Brother housemate Nikki Grahame won the new category of TV contender, beating the show's winner Pete Bennett.
Film fans faint at Saw III show
Staff at a UK cinema have had to call emergency services three times in one night because of a spate of people passing out during horror film Saw III. One woman was taken to hospital and two other adults were treated by medics after fainting in Stevenage, Herts. And in a separate case, a man collapsed at a cinema in Peterborough, Cambs, "due to the film's content". "If you know you're squeamish, don't go," warned a spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service. "This is obviously a blood-thirsty film. Some of the scenes are fairly horrific," said Matthew Ware. All the incidents took place on Friday evening, one of the busiest nights of the week for emergency crews, he added.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
ABN Amro downgrades ARM (ARM.L) to hold from buy, downgrades Aegis (AGS.L) to hold from buy and upgrades WPP Group (WPP.L) to buy from add.
The broker has initiates coverage of Home Serve (HSV.L) with a buy and has a hold on RHM (RHM.L).
Altium Securities downgrades Future (FUTR.L) to sell from reduce, downgrades Keller Group (KLR.L) to hold from add, downgrades May Gurney (MAYG.L) to add from buy and has buys for Axon (AXN.L), Itis Holdings (ITH.L) and Rok (ROK.L).
Citigroup reiterates hold C&C Group (CCR.L), raising target to €13.50 from €10.60, downgrades William Hill (WMH.L) to hold from buy, raising target to 665p from 650p, and initiates coverage of Ladbrokes (LAD.L) with a hold and 420p target.
The broker has a buy for Paddy Power (PAP.L), a buy and 295p target for Rank Group (RNK.L), a hold for AstraZeneca (AZN.L), a hold for ARM (ARM.L), a buy for Kensington (KGN.L), a buy for SABMiller (SAB.L) and a hold for Tomkins (TOMK.L).
Citigroup reiterates buy for Tate and Lyle (TATE.L).
Collins Stewart has a buy and 465p target for British Airways (BAY.L).
Credit Suisse has an outperform for Friends Provident (FP.L), raising target to 235p from 218p and an underperform for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L).
Deutsche Bank has a buy and £21 target for Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L), a hold and 280p target for RHM (RHM.L), a buy and 130p target for ARM (ARM.L) and downgrades Tomkins (TOMK.L) to sell from hold.
Evolution has downgraded its rating for Cairn Energy (CNE.L) to add from buy, cutting target to £20 from £23.
The broker has buys for Centurion Energy (CUX.L), Friends Provident (FP.L), Inspired (INGG.L), James Fisher (FSJ.L) and Tate & Lyle (TATE.L).
Evolution has a buy for Smiths Group (SMIN.L).
Goldman Sachs reiterates neutral on BHP Billiton (BLT.L), has a neutral for Rio Tinto (RIO.L) and a sell for Tomkins (TOMK.L), upgrades Carphone Warehouse (CPW.L) to buy from neutral, adding the stock to its Conviction Buy list.
The broker downgrades Thus (THUS.L) to neutral from buy, reiterates neutral for Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L), has a neutral for ARM (ARM.L), cutting forecasts and has a sell for John Wood (WG.L).
Lehman Bros reiterates overweight for ARM (ARM.L) with a 130p target, has an overweight and £20.40 target for Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L) and an equal-weight and 255p target for Tomkins (TOMK.L).
Merrill Lynch has a neutral for Tomkins (TOMK.L) while raising estimates for 2006 and lowering them for 2007, has a neutral for Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L), a neutral for F&C Asset Management (FCAM.L) and its key picks in UK real estate are British Land (BLND.L), Hammerson (HMSO.L), Capital & Regional (CAL.L) and Minerva (MNR.L).
The broker has a neutral for Chrysalis (CHS.L), a neutral for MyTravel Group (MT.L), a buy for Persimmon (PSN.L), a neutral for St James's Place (STJ.L) and a buy for Tate & Lyle (TATE.L).
Morgan Stanley has downgraded Diageo (DGE.L) to equal-weight from overweight, has an overweight for Britvic (BVIC.L), an overweight for SABMiller (SAB.L), an underweight for F&C Asset Management (FCAM.L), cutting target to 185p from 200p, downgrades GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) to equal-weight from overweight, cutting target to £14 from £17 and has an equal-weight for AstraZeneca (AZN.L), raising target to £34.50 from £33, but prefers Roche (ROG.L).
Numis, in a note on the home shopping sector, has a buy and 450p target for Ideal Shopping (IDS.L), a buy for Asos (ASC.L), raising target to 130p from 95p, a buy for Findel (FDL.L), raising target to 730p from 545p and an add for N Brown (BWNG.L), raising target to 300p from 215p.
The broker has upgraded its ratings for Antofagasta (ANTO.L) to buy from add target 739p, Savills (SVS.L) to add from hold 695p and Tate and Lyle (TATE.L) to add from hold and downgraded Chrysalis (CHS.L) to add from buy 147p and Xansa (XAN.L) to hold from add 82p.
UBS reiterates neutral for Centrica (CNA.L), raising target to 345p from 315p, has a buy for Antofagasta (ANTO.L), raising target to 600p from 525p, has a buy for BBA (BBA.L), a buy for JD Wetherspoon (JDW.L) and a neutral for RHM (RHM.L).
Last Night in New York stocks finished the day relatively unchanged as investors weighed data showing a drop in US consumer confidence in October against robust corporate earnings. At the close of trading, the Dow was off 5.8 points, at 12,080.7, the Nasdaq closed up 2.9 points, at 2,366.71, whilst the S&P was unchanged at 1,377.9.
On this day:-
1848 - WH Smith opened its first railway bookstall, at Euston Station in London.
1894 - In Russia, the death of Alexander III. Nicholas II became Tsar of Russia.
1914 - World War I: Great British warships 'Good Hope' and 'Monmouth' were sunk by a German fleet at the Battle of Coronel.
1940 - In France, archaeologists discovered a prehistoric painting in a cave at Lascaux in the Dordogne.
1944 - Great Britain's Home Guard, formed in 1939 to fight the expected German invasion, was ordered to disband.
1945 - In Great Britain, it was announced that all available evidence supported the theory that Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in Berlin.
1946 - The first Royal Command Performance in a public cinema at the 'Empire', Leicester Square.
1950 - Premium Bonds first went on sale in Great Britain with the winning numbers picked at random by a machine with the acronym 'ERNIE.' (Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment).
1951 - U.S. President Harry Truman survived an assassination attempt by 2 Puerto Rican nationalists.
1959 - The official opening of the country's first stretch of motorway (M1).
1963 - 'The Rolling Stones' released their first single: 'I Wanna Be Your Man'.
1963 - During a military coup in South Vietnam, President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated.
1972 - At least 10,000 people were killed and a further 5-million were left homeless when a tidal wave hit the coast of India.
1976 - Jimmy Carter was elected U.S. President.
1978 - The launch of a new daily newspaper in Great Britain, 'The Daily Star'.
1982 - A new terrestrial television channel, Channel 4, began transmitting. Its first programme was the word game 'Countdown'.
