Vodafone still has room left to grow, although the company faces a difficult balancing act as it fights to invest in long-term growth while at the same time generating cash for shareholders. Mention must be made in this regard of its commitment to maintaining its current pay-out policy. The solution, in the opinion of the Sunday Telegraph´s Questor team, may come from a partial sale of its stake in its U.S. joint-venture, Verizon Wireless, together with some sort of agreement attached relating to the dividend which accrues to it from its U.S. operations. All of the above remains true, the newspaper believes, despite the fact that the U.S. unit is doing quite well while European operations continue to be weighed down by the Eurozone crisis - a situation which a sale would only exacerbate. Then there is the strong growth seen in emerging markets such as Turkey and India. As well, data usage across the group increased by 60 per cent following the launch of 4G services in Spain, Australia and the Czech Republic.Forbidden Technologies is a very small niche player albeit in a sector which is growing very quickly. In fact, it could see its business expand dramatically over the next three years, as it begins to market its a wares globally, according to the Financial Mail on Sunday´s Midas column. The company´s cloud-enabled technology known as FORscene - which its Chief Executive has been perfecting now for a decade - allows for much quicker and inexpensive editing of video content. It is particularly apt for the edition of online videos. That has caught the eye of even the BBC, YouTube and Google. The firm has just placed £9m and is expected to strengthen its Board by adding directors with good contacts in the telecoms industry or in the U.S. broadcast sector. Like all small businesses, Forbidden is not for the cautious investor. But for adventurous punters, the shares could prove highly rewarding.On an island so often buffeted by foul weather one might be inclined to think that putting money in the shares of a chain of pubs which has invested heavily in gardens might be less than ideal. However, the recent run of extremely hot weather means that Marston´s may have managed to turn the tables on its competitors, even if all are expected to have done well, given the circumstances. Thus, this time around Chief Executive Ralph Findlay may be compensated for last year´s wet summer. Panmure Gordon, the broker, expects the chain to reveal a 7% jump in like-for-like sales over the past two-and-half months. More significantly, the £875m company trades at a slight discount ? 9.1 times future earnings compared with the average ratio of 10.1 times. Hence, "make mine a Marston´s" says The Sunday Times´ Danny Fortson. AB
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