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FTSE in-depth: BSkyB reels on Murphy's law

By Geoff Foster for MailOnline
Updated: 07:22 EDT, 5 February 2011

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Referee! BSkyB, still reeling from the Andy Gray and Richard Keys sexism scandal which saw both Sky TV football presenters take an early bath, has been given another kick up the backside.

BSkyB: Shares of the satellite broadcaster slipped 7.50p to 760p

Shares of the satellite broadcaster slipped 7.50p to 760p on fears of increased foreign competition on showing live Premier League games.

It follows news that Karen Murphy, landlady of the Red, White and Blue boozer in Portsmouth, has won a landmark ruling from the European Court of Justice that showing live Premier League games via foreign broadcasters is not breaking the law.

Apparently Miss Murphy has been involved in a long-running dispute with the Premier League after she was fined for showing Greek broadcasts of matches.

Murphy found Sky's £7,200 a year subscription – she was paying £600 a month – to show games far too expensive and so switched subscriber and paid only £800 a year using an imported decoder.

BSkyB, which will obviously be challenging the decision, currently makes £200m a year just from pub licences after winning exclusive rights to Premier League football, from the league's formation in 1992 when it bid £302m for exclusive live rights over five years.

So Joe and Joan Public could see their monthly charges for live sport and movies slashed should they eventually be given the right to subscribe to foreign providers supplying live coverage of games at a much lower price.

Panmure Gordon retains a hold rating on BSkyB. It believes the live matches ruling suggests that some revenue is at risk, but overall the stock is weighted to the probability of a successful bid for the company by News Corporation, conditional on the length of any regulatory review.

Bad weather was blamed for the meagre 36,000 rise in US jobs in January, far less than the 145,000 rise economists had forecast.

The unemployment rate fell to 9pc from 9.4pc in December, the lowest level since April 2009. A US fund manager said: 'Without the bad weather, the January payroll would have been significantly stronger.'

As Wall Street traded 30 points lower in early trading, the resilient Footsie held on to a 14.04 point gain at 5997.38.

Defensive utility stocks were at the top of the leaderboard after Bank of America/Merrill Lynch advised clients to switch on.

The US broking giant upgraded the sector to buy to reflect higher UK inflation trends which should lead to valuation and earnings upgrades.

United Utilities jumped 24p to 579p, Severn Trent 50p to 1440.00p and International Power 13.9p to 427.3p.

Barclays Bank improved 7.2p to 308.15p on demand ahead of the annual results on February 15. JP Morgan Cazenove forecasts pre-tax profits before exceptional items of £6.1bn and expects new boss Bob Diamond to eventually restructure Barclays Capital.

Fund managers filled their trolleys with Morrisons, 7.7p better at 278.9p.

UBS on Thursday lifted its target price to 315p from 290p and yesterday Matrix advised clients to buy.

It believes the supermarket group's top-line growth is on the point of picking up once again, with the shares likely to follow. Its price target is 325p.

Reports that Vedanta Resources could walk away from the deal to acquire a majority stake in Cairn India if the subsidiary accepts the oil ministry's conditions such as changing the royalty obligations in the Rajasthan block, Cairn Energy shed 11.7p to 426.3p.

Revived AT&T takeover chatter lifted Cable & Wireless Worldwide 3.35p to 76.35p.

Accsys Technologies, whose boss is Paul Clegg, brother of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, crashed 0.14p or 37pc to 0.23p following a deeply discounted placing and open offer at 0.15p a share, to raise £25.3m.

The company is apparently in dire need of cash to meet short-term running costs as well as expanding its Arnhem production plant in The Netherlands.

Following a £3m placing at 2.7p a share, carried out by broker Cenkos, renewable energy and clean tech investment company Wasabi Energy edged up 0.12p to 2.85p. Funds raised will help finance the rapid commercialisation of the Kalina Cycle technology.

Horizonte Minerals eased 0.75p to 27p following a £8.25m fundraising at 25p to fast-track its Araguaia nickel project in Brazil. Killik is a fan and says the Araguaia transaction has transformed Horizonte from a mere gold-focused explorer to a potential developer of a world-class nickel deposit.

A Charles Stanley Securities recommendation and 226p price target helped Petra Diamonds sparkle at 178p, up 2p. The broker reckons the recent acquisition of the Finsch operations is the catalyst that will begin a transformation in investors' perceptions of Petra.

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