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Anglo American said an illegal occupation at its Sishen iron ore mine in South Africa was over after police removed the strikers in the early hours of the morning. The firm said it would fire around 300 workers who had been involved in the for nearly nearly two weeks. Anglo's subsidiary, Kumba Iron Ore, said the company had regained possession of the billions of rand-worth of heavy mining equipment which had been held by the strikers. It said damage to equipment was being assessed and the company planned to restore the mine to full production as soon as possible. The majority of the strikers had ignored an ultimatum to leave the mine and report for disciplinary hearings by 11:00 on Monday, to explain why they should not be dismissed.

BAE Systems said it had sold off its Commercial Armoured Vehicles business for 10 million dollars. The defence giant has sold the Ohio-based firm for cash to homeland security and counter-terrorism company, the O'Gara Group. The business, which recorded sales of $58m in 2011, manufactures and integrates armour systems, including transparent armour, for military applications and commercial armoured vehicles. The sale is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Drinks brands leviathan Diageo will be going up against tough comparative figures from a year ago when it unveils fiscal first-quarter figures on Wednesday. Nomura thinks the Guinness brewer will still manage to churn out organic revenue growth of 5%. with strong growth in emerging markets and resilience in the US more than offsetting the slow-down in Europe. "We do not expect any change to the company's medium-term guidance (6% revenue growth, 200bp [two percentage points] on margin over three years)," the Japanese broker revealed

Insurance giant Resolution said it was in talks to sell its stake in one of Malaysia's biggest life insurers. The firm's Friends Life business is discussing the sale of its 30% stake in AmLife Insurance Berhad and AmFamily Takaful Berhad back to its joint venture partner, Malaysia's AmBank Group. Friends Life entered the AmLife joint venture in 2008. AmLife is one of Malaysia's top ten life insurers and Friends Life's 30% interest in AmLife had an 'MCEV' of £38m at the end of June. MCEV- or Market Consistent Embedded Value - is an accounting technique that insurers use as a standardised measure to enable comparisons of their balance sheets.

Investec has maintained its 'hold' rating for GKN and reduced its target price from 240p to 224p. However, analysts at Jefferies chose to retain their 'buy' rating on the stock this morning. The broker said: "The 3Q12 IMS testifies to the challenging market backdrop and to GKN's relative strengths, allowing for seasonality, in our view. There was still, for example, good organic growth in Driveline and Powder Metallurgy. "The market may yet weaken further, but we see a good chance that Aerospace will steady group earnings in FY13. We believe the subsequent re-rating of GKN could be significant."

Investec has trimmed its target price for engineering group GKN after its Driveline division suffered from a worse-than-expected weakening in automotive demand and associated operational issues. Revenue in the third quarter came in at £1,608m compared with Investec's £1,637m estimate, while the 7.1% missed the 8.2% forecast, mainly due to Driveline. "Weakening demand in European automotive markets and fluctuating demand in India (OEM strike) and Japan (OEM product weakness). Also, seasonality in Getrag (acquired in 2011) was greater than expected," the broker said. Investec said that it is thinking about cutting its full-year profit figures by around 5-6% to reflect ongoing weakness in automotive which implies an operating profit of around £530-540m, compared with the current £567m estimate.

Weir: Exane BNP Paribas initiates coverage with outperform rating and 2,200p target.

Standard Life: Panmure Gordon raises target from 295p to 325p, buy rating kept.

Sportingbet: Panmure Gordon downgrades from buy to hold, 61p target kept

Spirit Pub: Panmure Gordon keeps buy rating and 67p target.

Shaftesbury: Exane BNP Paribas downgrades to underperform, target cut from 540p to 520p.

SDL: Panmure Gordon upgrades from hold to buy, target cut from 667p to 599p.

Micro Focus: Panmure Gordon keeps buy rating and 620p target.

International Consolidated Airlines: Liberum Capital downgrades to sell.

Informa: Panmure Gordon keeps buy rating and 525p target; Investec maintains hold rating and 410p target.

Imperial Tobacco: Nomura keeps reduce rating and 2,166p target.............

Hargreaves Lansdown: Credit Suisse downgrades from neutral to underperform, target cut from 655p to 480p.

Great Portland Estates: Exane BNP Paribas upgrades to neutral, target lifted from 420p to 460p.

GKN: Jefferies maintains buy rating and 275p target...............

Derwent London: Exane BNP Paribas upgrades to neutral, target lifted from 1,950p to 2,040p.