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London afternoon: Gaming firms in demand

Fri, 25th Mar 2011 14:07

Leading shares are mixed after the strong opening prompted traders to bank some profits at the end of a week which has seen the top share index advance by around 170 points.Broker commentary is behind the share price movements of the Footsie's best and worst performers.Reckitt Benckiser is wanted after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock of the Cillit Bang maker to "buy" from "neutral", while Autonomy is in the red after JP Morgan issued a note in which it opined that the software giant's earnings quality is "poor and deteriorating".George O'Connor at Panmure Gordon remains a fan, however, pointing to a read across from US database software colossus Oracle which, in O'Connor's words, "came out with a blistering set of third quarter results after the US close yesterday"."The results bode well from the enterprise software sector generally, with Autonomy as the prime candidate for a positive read-across. Autonomy is closing the period (end March) and shares should begin the traditional 'lift' - Oracles results are a likely catalyst for the 'lift' to begin. Shares are trading on a current year P/E of 20.3x - the bottom end of the traditional range - and are pretty much where they normally are given the intra quarterly pattern," O'Connor says.Engineer Invensys recovers some of the losses seen yesterday following the abrupt departure of its chief executive, Ulf Henriksson. Evolution Securities said the share price setback represented a great buying opportunity.Credit Suisse reiterates its 'outperform' rating on satellite operator Inmarsat, but the shares lose altitude as the broker cut its target price from 840p to 720p, citing the disappointing fourth quarter results that revealed slowing growth.African Barrick Gold has had further successes with its drilling programme on the Nyanzaga project in Tanzania. Infill drilling continues to show good continuity of gold mineralisation throughout the Tusker deposit with further wide zones encountered on several sections.Euromoney Institutional Investor, the business publisher and exhibitions organiser, is trading in line with expectations and will make at least £40m in the half-year to 31 March. "Sales trends over the past three months have been broadly positive, particularly for the events businesses for which the third quarter is the most important of the year," the firm said Friday.Canary Wharf owner Songbird Estates' recovery continued in the second half of last year as property values picked up and occupancy rose to 97.1%. Online gaming company 888 said that the Nevada Gaming Commission has approved the relationship between Dragonfish, 888's business-to-business arm, and Caesars Interactive Entertainment. The ruling relates to state law in Nevada that covers Nevada gaming companies conducting gaming outside the state of Nevada."We believe the clearance is the first for a foreign operator and potentially paves the way for other foreign online gambling operators to enter into a joint venture with US based gaming companies (initially outside of the US)," noted Shore Capital.That's probably the reason behind strong interest in the shares of other online gaming firms today such as Partygaming and Betfair. Elsewhere in the sector online gaming software specialist Cryptologic is flying after it launched a full strategic review, which could result in it putting itself up for sale. Europe-focused Aurelian Oil & Gas has run into problems at the Siekierki multi-frak well Trzek-2 where the stabilised flow rate is now likely to be less than originally expected. The firm, which had been predicting a flow rate of about 8m standard cubic feet per day of gas, said the test had been delayed by two weeks due to mechanical problems.North Sea oilfields operator Xcite Energy is not fazed by tax changes in the Budget this week. According to the company's calculations, the increased benefit of the heavy oil tax allowances will have a material offsetting effect on the increased supplemental corporation tax charge. Xcite's loss before tax in 2010 widened to £2.45m from £0.78m in 2009 as the company invested heavily in its drilling programme. HMV, the entertainment media retailer, had bears rushing to cover their short positions as it confirmed press speculation that is exploring strategic options in respect of Waterstone's and HMV Canada. Cancer drug developer Antisoma is sharply lower after the company said that no transactions which might result in any offer for the issued share capital of the company remain under consideration and none are now envisaged. The company put up the "for sale" sign at the beginning of February after it discontinued development of a leukemia treatment it was working on, following a disappointing phase III trial.- - -jh
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4 Mar 2010 16:40

London close: Footsie suffers hiccup

The blue chip index failed to stretch its winning streak to a fifth session, falling for the first time this week on negative results reaction and downbeat miners. It held above 5,500 all day despite coming close just after trade began and towards the end of play. Engineering and project managemen

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4 Mar 2010 14:13

London afternoon: Stocks are becalmed

It's been an up and down day for the blue-chip index although the Footsie has rarely strayed far from its overnight level. As expected, the Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.5% and taken no further action on quantitative easing (QE) amid conflicting signals over the state of the UK econo

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4 Mar 2010 10:07

Partygaming hit by non-prosecution payout

Online gaming group PartyGaming fell into losses in the year to December 31 after paying costs for a non-prosecution agreement with the US authorities. The firm posted a net loss $26.5m in the year to December 31 having posted a profit of $66.1m the previous year. Its non-prosecution agreement res

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3 Feb 2010 14:32

London afternoon: Footsie falls as miners switch sides

Mining stocks headed south over the lunch time session, taking the blue-chip index with them. Antofagasta is the worst performer in the mining sector. The copper miner produced 442,500 tonnes of the red metal in 2009, ahead of its original forecast of 433,000 tonnes but lower than the 477,700 tonne

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3 Feb 2010 13:51

FTSE 250 movers: Partygaming jumps after sales surge

Investors in PartyGaming, which owns the PartyPoker.com online gambling site, are celebrating after it said fourth quarter sales surged 32% from the year before and it remains confident about the full year outlook. Sales of carpets bounced back strongly in the run-up to Christmas at Carpetright, he

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3 Feb 2010 12:08

London midday: Merrills takes a shine to banks

Footsie ended the morning at an intra-day high, driven by a strong performance from financial stocks and miners. Standard Life is the top riser after it announced a 'significant increase' in flows and sales in the fourth quarter. Life and pensions net inflows more than tripled to £1.3bn from £0.4bn

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3 Feb 2010 08:50

London open: Quiet start despite Wall St rally

Hopes of a strong start have been dashed with Footsie limping along at present even though Wall Street posted its second triple-digit gain in two gains overnight. Data search software Autonomy reported fourth quarter and full year figures that were in line with expectations and gave a confident out

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3 Feb 2010 07:28

PartyGaming Q4 sales jump 32%

PartyGaming, which owns the PartyPoker.com online gambling site, said fourth quarter sales surged 32% from the year before and it remains confident about the full year outlook. The surge in sales was underpinned by its acquisitions Cashcade and World Poker Tour in 2009. Stripping out acquisitions

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26 Jan 2010 14:19

London afternoon: Losses pared

Leading shares cut back their losses over the lunch time session but resource stocks remain under the cosh on fears that the Chinese authorities will step up its campaign to cool down its overheating economy and lift interest rates. Fresnillo, Xstrata and Kazakhmys lead the mining sector lower, wh

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11 Jan 2010 16:41

London close: Footsie gives up gains

The leading share index gave up early gains to finish only slightly higher as euphoria over strong trade figures from China in December gave way to renewed fears over recovery prospects. China's December imports jumped by 55.9% from the same month the previous year, while exports were 17.7% higher

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11 Jan 2010 14:16

London afternoon: Stocks back on the climb

Leading shares, which had been surrendering early gains at the end of the morning, picked up again over the lunch time session, helped by expectations of a firm start by Wall Street. In the absence of much in the way of corporate events to attract attention, traders have been focused on broker note

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11 Jan 2010 11:38

London midday: Footsie loses some sparkle

Footsie has lost some sheen as miners and property groups have given back some of their early gains. Brokers have been busy with a Citigroup review of the oil sector boosting Cairn Energy. The broker says that fast-tracking the multiwell exploration drilling programme in Greenland has made the grou

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11 Jan 2010 08:49

London open: Another bright start

London's top stocks have opened strongly with good gains for resource stocks sending the index sharply higher. Cairn Energy leads the oil sector, while demand is strong for Rio Tinto, Kazakhmys and Fresnillo among the miners. Silver miner Fresnillo has also dropped out of the race for Canadian mini

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11 Jan 2010 07:32

London pre-open: Early gains ahead

London's top stocks look set to open with good gains with traders expecting Footsie to add 24 points in early dealings. Cash strapped plumbers merchant Wolseley is to raise just under £24m from the sale of its Irish businesses. WIBHM, a company backed by private investor, is paying €26.5m for Wols

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11 Jan 2010 07:07

Partygaming in 'landmark' Danish deal

Online gaming group PartyGaming has tied up an an exclusive, five-year agreement with state-controlled Danske Spil to provide an online gaming platform for poker and casino games in Denmark. "This is a landmark B2B deal for PartyGaming and validates our strategy to become a leading provider of B2B

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