Leading shares are mixed having picked up a little over the lunch time session, helped by a firmer start on Wall Street. With the oil price below $80, oil titans Royal Dutch Shell and BP find themselves on traders' sell lists, but BG Group makes headway after HSBC upped its price target for the stock from 1330p to 1455p. The bank has increased is earnings estimate for the company on the assumption that the fundamentals in the liquefied natural gas sector are improving.Societe Generale has issued a downbeat assessment of the banking sector which has hit the likes of Barclays and HSBC.Kraft Foods has increased its earnings guidance for 2009 as it attempts to generate momentum for its hostile bid for Cadbury after the latest rebuttal from the UK chocolate group yesterday. The US processed food giant says diluted earnings per share for the year just ended will be at least $2 versus previous expectations of at least $1.97. Cadbury repeated on Monday its view that the American's £10.5bn offer is 'derisory' and completely undervalues the UK business. Press reports suggest that Italian confectionery firm Ferrero has pulled out of the battle for Cadbury. There had been rumours that the Italian firm would team up with US chocolatier Hershey to launch a bid for the British chocolate and gum maker. A 50/50 joint venture between British Land and supermarket chain Tesco has completed the refinance of its retail portfolio with a new £315m five-year term loan.Among the mid-caps, emerging markets asset manager Ashmore Group increased assets under management by 2% in the second quarter, but that's less than many analysts were hoping for given improved conditions. AuM for the quarter to 31 December rose to $31.6bn from $31.1bn in September, but analysts at UBS yesterday predicted AuM would rise 3% to $32bn, which was less than its previous forecast of $32.5bn due to expected further redemptions by US pension funds.Greggs expects full year results to be in line with expectations and said more customers popped into the bakery chain for hot pies over Christmas. Over the four week Christmas trading period to 26 December total sales grew by 3.1% and like-for-like sales grew by 1.1%. The group said it sold more than a million mince pies each week, up 6% on last year.More good growth from its online operation helped mail order clothing group N Brown's sales rise handily over the Christmas period. Total revenue increased by 4.9% for the 19 weeks ended 9 January 2010 with like-for-like sales, excluding revenue from Simply Be in Germany and High & Mighty, up 3.6%. Online sales have increased by 13% and now account for 39% of the total sales.Recovery play Flying Brands said it expects to exceed full year market forecasts after it cut costs. The home shopping firm said sales from continuing operations fell 27% to £6.6m in the three months to 1 January.SIG said it has seen exceptionally challenging conditions and disruption to trading caused by extreme weather conditions in a number of countries in the final weeks of the year, but does not expect full year underlying pre-tax profits to be less than current analysts' consensus expectations of £60m.The building products group said total sales for the year were c.£2,744m, a drop of about £310m (10.1%) from 2008 (£3,054m). Like for like sales fell c.11.5% in sterling and by c.15.6% in constant currency.Industrial conveyor belt maker Fenner said trading during the initial months of the current financial year has been encouraging and it expects 'attractive earnings growth.'Scottish semiconductor designer Wolfson Microelectronics is on the slide after Goldman Sachs cuts is rating on the stock to 'sell' though its 18-month price target has been left unchanged at 125p. London brewer and pubs owner Fuller, Smith and Turner has turned to Cashbox to operate the 35 cashpoint machines in its existing estate, with the possibility of the brewer adding further automatic teller machines (ATMs) throughout its near 400-strong pub chain.
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