BP Share News (BP.)

Stocks on the rise in the UK today. Compiled by Dow Jones Newswires Markets Desk, markets.eu@dowjones.com Contact us in London. +44-20-7842-9464 Markettalk.eu@dowjones.com 1320 GMT [Dow Jones] Tony Hayward's departure from BP (BP.LN) would be a positive news for the stock, allowing the company to restore its reputation and credibility in the US, says Cheuvreux. Reckons BP managing director Robert Dudley is effectively likely to succeed Hayward as CEO. Notes not only is Dudley an American, but he also hails from the region devastated by the oil spill. The brokerage adds that it was anticipating this change, but later on this year, when the Macondo well is definitively killed. Keeps the stock at outperform with 450p price target. Shares +2.8% at 410p. (michele.maatouk@dowjones.com) 1136 GMT [Dow Jones] Royal Bank of Scotland lifts SLL International (SSL.LN) price target to 1163p from 800p following the company's announcement that it is recommending an 1163p all-cash offer from Reckitt Benckiser (RB.LN). RBS reckons it's a sensible deal at a fair price and thinks shareholders will accept at the current level. Also doubts a counterbid will emerge. "Reckitt is paying a full price and has consistently appeared to be the most likely buyer of the business." Keeps the stock at hold. SSL shares +0.2% at 1179p. (michele.maatouk@dowjones.com) 1132 GMT [Dow Jones] Credit Suisse raises its Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.LN) price target to 72p from 68p following the stress test results. UK banks screened well on the CEBS test says CS. "Stress-tested Tier I ratios, sovereign bond disclosures and adverse impairment forecasts support our upbeat view on UK domestic banks," says CS. It says Lloyds Banking Group stands out, with the associated disclosure showing it has no exposure to Greek, Irish, Portuguese or Spanish government bonds. Outperform rating. Shares +2.3% at 65p. (michele.maatouk@dowjones.com) 1059 GMT [Dow Jones] PartyGaming (PRTY.LN) shares are boosted by news last Friday that the financial services committee of the U.S. House of Representatives will vote Tuesday on a bill to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, analysts say. Say new legislation could start regulation of online gambling in the U.S. and open up the market for online operators. However, analysts warn it will be difficult for the legislators to push through major changes in the short-term. Shares +3.9% at 243p. (simon.zekaria@dowjones.com) 0944 GMT [Dow Jones] Piper Jaffray upgrades Autonomy (AU.LN) to overweight from neutral and raises price target to 1940p from 1618p. Reckons investors should exploit Autonomy's current share price weakness as a good entry point. Says the shares had become overheated in March-July on premature anticipation of an accretive acquisition, after the convertible bond raising in March. Says: "In our view this effect is now back out of the share price, and we see a compelling catalyst path through 2H." Adds margins are set to recover from 2Q weakness, revenues are on track and Autonomy's acquisition plans have the potential to be meaningfully accretive. Shares +0.4% at 1629p. (michele.maatouk@dowjones.com) 0917 GMT [Dow Jones] Morgan Stanley raises Travis Perkins (TPK.LN) price target to 1200p from 1150p ahead of this week's interim results. Notes 2Q trading has been better than expected, and in addition, the brokerage now integrates the BSS Group (BTSM.LN) acquisition into its forecasts from FY'11. Says the stock's valuation is too cheap "for a well-managed business that should see strong earnings growth from economic recovery, market share gains, and synergies from the BSS acquisition." Keeps at overweight. Shares +1% at 834p. (michele.maatouk@dowjones.com) 0856 GMT [Dow Jones] Lloyds Banking (LYG) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) could be biggest gainers among U.K. banks from stress test results, which could provide a lift to debt markets, says Exane BNP Paribas. "The bigger issue for U.K. banks is the extent [if any] to which the CEBS stress test exercise helps to re-establish confidence in debt markets and thereby improve, over time, the availability [and pricing] of term wholesale funding," adding RBS and Lloyds the most reliant on such funding. Keeps RBS at neutral, 50p target price; Lloyds at outperform, 80p target. Shares on both banks +1.8% at 46p, 65p, respectively. (patricia.kowsmann@dowjones.com) 0827 GMT [Dow Jones] Pearson (PSON.LN) 1H results are "materially better-than-expectations," Panmure Gordon analyst Alex DeGroote says. "North America Education and Penguin the main drivers on the upside," he adds. Pearson has also upgraded its forecast for 2010, "which is encouraging", in spite of repeated references to market uncertainty. Pearson usually generates more than 80% of clean PBT in the 2H, says DeGroote, who retains a hold rating and 950p target price. Stock +2.4% at 996p. (lilly.vitorovich@dowjones.com) 0716 GMT [Dow Jones] All UK banks included in the EU-wide bank stress tests--Barclays (BCS), HSBC (HBC), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.LN), Lloyds Banking Group (LYG)--passed, as expected, says Shore Capital, with tier 1 ratios comfortably above 6% under the adverse scenario. Takes comfort, in isolation, from the UK bank results and disclosure (while remaining conscious of EU-wide contagion risk). Says sceptics are likely to remain unconvinced, but the publication of granular sovereign debt exposures should provide welcome transparency for the more pragmatic. Prefers Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered (STAN.LN), all buy rated, ahead of Lloyds and RBS, both at hold. Barclays +2.2%, Lloyds +1.7%, RBS +2.3%, and HSBC +0.2%. (peter.nurse@dowjones.com) 0711 GMT [Dow Jones] UK banks all passed the EU-wide stress tests Friday. However, "the static balance sheet limitations along with the absence of important factors such as regulatory changes make the results less meaningful, especially for UK banks that will see significant restructuring," says JPMorgan Cazenove. Adds that a pass for UK banks was already expected post the FSA stress tests in 2009, and this test highlighted that UK banks would have no capital issues. Moreover, "this was more of a European exercise intended to reassure the market and so the same challenges in terms of higher funding costs, need to delever and balance sheet restructuring remain," adds JPMorgan Cazenove. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.LN) shares +2% at 46p, Barclays (BARC.LN) +2.8% at 310p and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.LN) shares +2% at 65p. (ishaq.siddiqi@dowjones.com) 0704 GMT [Dow Jones] Tullow Oil's (TLW.LN) latest discovery offshore Ghana, the Owo field, is world class, says NCB Stockbrokers analyst Peter Hutton. The field contains light oil, which considerably improves the economics, and will move Tullow materially closer to its top-end resource estimate of 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent for Owo and its neighbouring discovery Tweneboa, he says. "This gets Tweneboa/Owo over commerciality by some measure," he says. Shares +5.3% at 1241p. (james.herron@dowjones.com) Contact us in London. +44-20-7842-9288 Markettalk.eu@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 26, 2010 09:20 ET (13:20 GMT)