Taking stock: Market news in brief

By This Is Money
Updated: 05:37 EDT, 11 April 2007

The Evening Standard's City staff present an at-a-glance sector-by-sector briefing on the latest stock market news.

Banking & finance
Merrill Lynch has repeated its buy rating for Royal Bank of Scotland. Reports last weekend claimed the bank was mulling a joint bid for ABN Amro with long-term ally Banco Santander, which would disrupt the proposed £80bn merger between ABN and Barclays. They believe they can generate a bigger premium for shareholders.

Building & property
Deutsche Bank has begun coverage of Hammerson with a hold rating and 1840p target and considers it a core holding in the pan-European property sector. But the bank believes the shares already reflect much of their growth potential, although it expects Hammerson to continue to build value via rigorous management of existing assets.

Consumer
Panmure Gordon has raised brewer Greene King from hold to buy and repeated its 1200p target. It follows a visit to Scotland where the brewer of Old Speckled Hen and Abbot Ale is trading better than expected after the smoking ban. Greene King enjoyed a good Easter and punters should take advantage of recent weakness in the shares.

Engineering
VT Group has won an £150m order to supply Trinidad and Tobago with three offshore patrol ships. The deal and long-term maintenance contract should secure 200 skilled jobs and create a further 100. Citigroup says confirmation of the deal will quell the firm's sceptics and has pursuaded the broker to repeat its hold rating.

Health
GlaxoSmithKline was a dull market yesterday after reports at the weekend indicated that tests on its bowel treatment Entereg revealed possible cardiac and cancer safety risks. Tests showed that 2.6% of patients treated with the constipation drug suffered cardiovascular problems compared with 1.1% of patients on a placebo.

Industrials
Bernard Burns, the chief executive officer of William Sinclair, has bought a further 25,000 shares in the horticulture supplier at 100p each. That lifts his total holding to 165,708 shares, or 1% of the company. Last September Burns paid just 53¼p for 11,650 shares. The Sinclair share price has risen almost 30p since the start of the year.

Leisure
KBC Peel Hunt has repeated its buy rating on sporting goods maker Umbro after comparing the e330 a share French fashion retailer PPR is paying for 27.1% of Puma. That values Puma at 17.1 times earnings and compares with the 17.5 times paid by Adidas for Reebok in 2005. That would give Umbro a takeout price of 205p.

Media
A £600m bidding war was on the cards today for Bureau van Dijk, the online database that provides information on sixm companies, after private-equity group Candover put its 60% stake up for sale. It is likely to attract interest from publishers Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Pearson and Incisive Media.

Natural resources
Shares of UrAsia Energy traded at record highs yesterday following last Thursday's EGM at which shareholders agreed to a merger with SXR Uranium One, another uranium producer listed in Canada and South Africa. The deal will create the second-largest uranium producer worth $5.5bn (£2.8bn) and the biggest company on Aim.

Retail
Seymour Pierce is sticking its neck out and retaining a 'very nervous hold' rating on J Sainsbury. Lastweekend, the Sainsbury family rejected an increased offer of 582p a share from private equity. The broker wonders if the bidders are so flush with cash that they have to do a deal, or whether egos are dictating the pace.

Support services
Harry Potter books printer St Ives saw first-half profits tumble but today said it expects the full-year trading performance to be 'considerably ahead' of last year's. The group sold its corporate finance printing business. Underlying profits dipped from £11.5m to £11.4m in the 27 weeks to 2 February and the dividend is held at 5p.

Technology
Managing director David Lumsden has sold a further 3500 shares, worth £11,130, in information and technology services specialist Tikit Group at 318p. That reduces his total holding to 273,158 shares or 2.13% of the company. Tikit shares have improved steadily during the past four years, having come up from a low of 80½p in June 2003.

Telecoms
The party may be over at Pipex following weekend speculation that BT Group has walked away from the £450m auction. That would leave Carphone Warehouse in the running for the internet service provider and it is unlikely to pay over the odds. Brokers say chairman Peter Dubens may have to sell the company piecemeal.

Transport
Rising fuel costs took some of the shine off the strong passenger numbers from easyJet yesterday. They topped threem for the first time in March. Broker Daniel Stewart says the 12% rise was in line with expectations, but that has not stopped the firm repeating its buy stance and share-price target of 825p.

Utilities
British Energy got a positive response to a better-than-expected trading update. Total output for its financial year to 31 March is expected to be 58.4 terawatt hours (TWh), marginally ahead of current market expectations. Merrill Lynch believes the shares are likely to remain well supported in the short term, anticipating upgrades on these numbers.