Market report: Thursday close

 

JPMorgan offers precious little seasonal cheer to publicans and stock market investors in its latest review of the Pub and Restaurant sector.

The broker is worried investors may not buy into the sector until they see deep value. After a shocking time this year for pubs and restaurants, the broker reckons it is wise to wait for a better buying opportunity.

It has downgraded Mitchells & Butlers, ¼p cheaper at 442¼p, from overweight to underweight and slashed its target from 850p to 460p.

At the same time, it has raised The Restaurant Group, up 4½p at 179¾p, neutral to overweight and cut its target from 350p to 260p, while Enterprise Inns, 1¾p cheaper at 484¾p, is moved from overweight to neutral with its price target dropped from 720p to 550p.

Marston's, 8¾p lighter at 311p, moves from neutral to underweight with its sights lowered from 450p to 320p.

JPMorgan's top pick in the sector remains Punch Taverns, up 5p at 775½p, at overweight, albeit with a target reduced from 1450p to 1070p.

Share prices generally ticked better in thin trading despite a poor performance overnight on Wall Street. Investors are continuing to square up their positions ahead of tomorrow's expiry of the December series of options and futures, which could generate volatility. The FTSE 100 index rose 61.1 to 6345.6. Johnson Matthey was driven sharply higher in thin trading on talk of a bid from Dow Chemical of the US. The price briefly touched 2067p before paring back its lead to 93p at 1836p. The word was that Dow was prepared to offer 2400p a share for the precious metals group, valuing it at £5.15bn.

ICI finally disappeared from traders' screens and the Footsie 100 index following completion of Akzo Nobel's £8bn acquisition. ICI, often referred to as the bellwether of British industry, was orginally a constituent of the old FT 30 index.

Northern Rock added 1.3p to 92p following yesterday's media speculation that rival Bradford & Bingley, down ¾p at 265¾p, wants to buy some of its assets. Hedge fund operator SRM Global Asset Master Fund Partners has bought a further 900,000 shares at 90.78p, lifting its stake to 41.94 million shares, or 9.96%.

HSBC rose 8½p to 842p depsite Goldman Sachs cutting its target from 1041p to 1007p and repeating its neutral rating. It warns the slowdown in global growth could result in further downgrades. Goldman also has a neutral rating on Standard Chartered, down 4p at 1810p, but has raised its target from 1987p to 2065p because its rate of growth continues to rise.

There was heavy turnover in Legal & General, 0.2p firmer at 125.9p. A parcel of five million shares went through on the ticker at 126p. A further 2.51 million later went through at 125.4p. Resolution, the subject of a bid from rival Pearl, marked time at 708p , down ½p. Non-executive director David Cooksey has sold 371,533 shares, worth £2.63m, at 708p each.

Bank stocks

The latest news, charts, share tips and more...

Bank

WPP rose 19p to 630½p after Deutsche Bank repeated its buy rating with an 850p target. The advertising giant won more new business in the final quarter than in the rest of the year.

Tullow Oil dropped 23p to 626½p - it earlier hit 600p - after completing test drilling at its Mputa-4 well in Uganda's block two. Information taken from the well will now be integrated with the Kaiso-Tonya appraisal programme well data and the recently acquired 3D seismic.

Kaupthing describes the news as irrelevant in terms of share price. The deep high-impact Ngassa well drilling report due in the New Year is key to valuing the group's Ugandan operations.

Petra Diamonds, firm at 144½p, has sold its 99.43 carat diamond produced from its Sedibeng mine in South Africa for $1.31m and says it looks looks forward to 2008 with 'great confidence'. It also recently sold a 51.88 carat stone from its Koffiefontein mine for $780,580, or $15,046 per carat.

Solar Integrated Technology was up 10&frac;12p to 97p after raising £14m through a placing of 16.47 million shares at 85p. It has won a $70m (£34.8m) contract to build integrated photovoltaic installations in Italy.

All newspaper and magazine share tips emailed to you once a week...

Earlier in the day, it was hard work for investors in New York from the overnight as they tried to keep pace with the gyrations that finally saw the Dow end the session with a loss of 25.20 at 13,207.27. Not only did they have to contend with $10.6bn of losses at Morgan Stanley, but brokers also downgraded a clutch of insurers connected to the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs continued to draw strength from Tuesday's record profit and bonuses, while Bear Stearns, which reports today, fell 1.3%.

Share trading in Asia last night was mixed, with turnover levels indicating investors are starting to unwind ahead of next week's holiday. In Tokyo, shares pared earlier gains to finish flat as investors booked profits in a volatile session with light trade. Bank shares including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial rose on news they will refuse to pay into a US-led subprime rescue fund. The Nikkei 225 ended the session up 1.09 at 15,031.60.

In Hong Kong, there was support for the new issue China National Materials, the world's largest cement engineering service provider, but the Hang Seng index finished down 12.17 at 27,017.09.

{"status":"error","code":"499","payload":"Asset id not found: readcomments comments with assetId=1618027, assetTypeId=1"}