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ABF shares look too expensive: Conglomerates are dead, long live conglomerates. Associated British Foods delivered a strong profit performance despite being the bête noire of most management consultants and business schools in the country. The company reported pretax profit up 17.5% to £1.02 billion in the year ended September 14, as another strong performance from clothing retailer Primark offset its struggling sugar business. Questor was more impressed by the cash generated during the year. Net cash from operations surged to £1.44 billion, up £163 million on the same period last year. This means that even after spending some £676 million opening 25 new stores across Spain, France and the U.K., and expanding retail space by 8% from a year earlier to 10.2 million sq ft, the company could easily pay investors £256 million in dividends. ABF has been a solid performer for investors, and the only issue here is the reliance on Primark. The discount clothing group contributed 43% of the group’s operating profit last year. With about 60% of the store portfolio in the U.K., how long can the British consumer carry growth? AB Foods at £27.83+112p Questor Says “Sell”.

Low-flying aircraft: Meggitt says it operates under the radar, like a stealth aircraft. Certainly the aerospace engineering group’s plans for its first ever share buyback caught the market by surprise. Meggitt should benefit further in 2015 as the £200 million-£300 million buyback bolsters earnings per share to the tune of 6-9%. This is particularly handy as the outlook based on current trading has prompted downwards tweaks to some analysts’ forecasts. Meggitt insists that its expectation of organic revenue growth in the low to mid-single digits next year is not a downgrade as it has not explicitly guided on 2015 before. Whatever – it still doesn’t feel positive, especially in the long shadow cast by downgrades in August and last November. The share price looks somewhat higher than underlying trading justifies.

Bank regulation: no presents yet: The big banks may be hoping for a shiny package in the form of a rewrite of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, which have hamstrung the sector in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Richard Shelby is an outspoken critic of Dodd-Frank – and the Republican senator from Alabama is set to become the new Senate banking committee chair. Yet he has also called for higher capital requirements for the biggest banks and less oversight for smaller community and regional banks. Such a change would help the likes of KeyCorp and Comerica. Status as a Sifi means more onerous stress tests and having to hold more capital, which limits the ability to pay dividends. Banks with assets below $50 billion have been outperforming compared with their bigger rivals. The regulatory difference may or may not have helped them, but it cannot have hurt, either. Investors should demand that banks hold enough capital and shun those that depend on high leverage to make money, rather than wait for senators to do the job for them. Regulatory gifts are easily taken back.

Marks and Spencer: fireworks night: That was the last time Marks and Spencer shares enjoyed a one-day jump on anything like the scale of Wednesday’s 10% move. This sort of thing just does not happen very often, with good reason. Yes, the first-half results that prompted the move beat analysts’ estimates. But it is telling that many of those analysts did not increase their full year forecasts. Most stuck with earnings per share estimates of about 33p for the year to March 2015. And there were signs that Chief Executive Marc Bolland is making some progress. Women’s wear sales grew 1.3% in the first five months (although the half-year period as a whole was soured by warm weather in September). There was good news on margins – the gross margin in clothing will rise by 150-200 basis points over last year’s 50.7%. Very nice. But not the sort of thing that should prompt a fundamental reappraisal of M&S’s valuation. Take a step back and M&S is doing what it has been doing for years – beating the food retailers in food; losing to the clothes retailers in clothes. In the most recent quarter (including the warm September), M&S’s clothing sales fell 3%. Next was up 2.4%.

On BT Sports: LONDON (Alliance News) - A UK competition tribunal has ruled that British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC must make its Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels available on its rival BT Group PLC's YouView service. The decision follows a ruling from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom in 2010 that BSkyB should offer the sports channels to other pay television providers on a wholesale basis in order to promote competition. However Ofcom's original ruling was challenged by BSkyB to the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Wednesday's decision is an interim one, meaning there will be a further ruling following the assessment of further evidence. Ofcom welcomed the interim ruling, saying it was pleased that the Competition Appeal Tribunal had recognised that it is for Ofcom to consider the impact of changed market conditions in its new review of the 'wholesale must offer' remedy, which requires BSkyB to offer the channels to other providers.

WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - US crude oil rebounded to end sharply higher on Wednesday, after an official weekly oil report from the Energy Information Administration showed US stockpiles to have risen less than expected last week. Oil was also supported by news reports of a pipeline blast in Saudi Arabia which was purported to have been brought under control quickly. The Wall Street Journal said the oil pipeline belonging to Saudi Aramco, caught fire while undergoing repairs. However, the Journal quoting company sources, said the fire was limited and brought under control subsequently. Earlier today, a weekly report from the US Energy Information Administration showed US crude oil inventories to have risen by 0.5 million barrels in the week ended October 31, which was well below analysts expectation of an increase of 1.9 million barrels. The EIA report showed US crude oil inventories at 380.2 million barrels, end last week.

Brent crude tumbles as Saudi escalates Opec oil price war: Oil prices were in free fall on Tuesday morning after it emerged that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, had slashed its contract price for its U.S. customers in a further sign of an escalating war for control of global energy markets.

Primark’s fashionistas must avoid rivals’ wardrobe malfunctions: Primark’s £5 T-shirts generally end up in one of three places: on a value conscious shopper; in a bargain bin discounted to £2; or trampled underfoot by thousands rushing to the aforementioned bins. Online devotees call it Primania. Fashionistas call it Primani. Analysts call it more profitable than Marks and Spencer. Well, nearly – Citi expects Primark’s 2015 earnings before interest and tax to reach £730 million, getting ever closer to the £755 million forecast for M&S. Fans of inexpensive neckwear dismiss the problems in ABF’s sugar division as the inevitable result of an end to EU food quotas – and point out that margins in its grocery division are the best they have been in a decade. They say the “look” that investors are buying is more influenced by Paris. And Pennsylvania. As one analyst points out, Primark has become a top 20 clothing retailer in France with just five stores. At its Créteil branch in Paris, 4,500 shoppers stampeded through the doors when they opened for the first time. In the U.S., Primark will have opened three stores by Christmas, and five more by 2016 – including one in country’s biggest mall, north of Philadelphia.

Persimmon shrugs off U.K. housing market slowdown: Persimmon, Britain’s biggest builder by market capitalisation, has dismissed concerns over a slowdown in the housing market as a return to the “traditional season pattern”.

Buy shares of Dairy Crest, Danny Fortson recommended in the Sunday Times. The dairy producer has had a rough time as exports to Russia have dried up and supermarkets have cut milk prices but the company is cutting costs and boosting marketing of Cathedral City cheese and Frijj flavoured milk drinks. Falling oil prices could cut energy costs and increase consumer spending power. With a 6% dividend yield now could be the time to buy and wait for the recovery, Fortson advised in his Inside the City column.

Diageo to swap Bushmills whiskey for control of luxury tequila Don Julio: Diageo is poised to take full control of tequila brand Don Julio as it nears an asset-swap agreement that would see it hand over Bushmills Irish whiskey to Mexico’s Beckmann family.

''U.S. authorities are investigating London-based Standard Chartered for potential U.S. sanctions violations connected to its banking for Iranian-controlled entities in Dubai, according to people familiar with the probe. The latest investigation involving the bank is based, in part, from evidence that emerged during a separate probe of BNP Paribas, the French bank that pleaded guilty this summer to charges related to sanctions-busting and agreed to pay $8.9 billion in penalties, the people said." (Reuters)

Sorry mate: Wrong Board. Please accept my apology.

The Questor Column Hold Standard Life for income: Insurer and investment manager Standard Life saw its shares slide by more than 2% last week after it said changes in U.K. pension rules cut sales of key products and made the outlook uncertain. The fund management business performed well, adding net inflows of £4.3 billion to its savings and investment products in the past nine months. The company manages £290 billion, with customers pouring £3.7 billion of new money into multi-asset strategies this year to try to protect their savings as equity markets have sold off from late September, and commodity prices have weakened. The company sold its Canadian business to Manulife for £2.2 billion and expects the deal to complete in the first quarter of 2015, triggering a £1.75 billion windfall for shareholders. Standard Life is expected to make pre-tax profits of £713 million, on revenue of £23.8 billion, giving 24.6p in earnings per share for the year ended December. Given the acceleration in the revenue and earnings growth after the sale of the Canadian operations, analysts have upgraded earnings per share forecasts to 28p next year and 32p the year after. The shares are trading on 17 times earnings and the prospective dividend yield is 4.4%. Questor thinks the shares are trading on a high earnings multiple given the uncertain outlook. But that steady and growing dividend income is attractive. Hold. Standard Life 393.7p Questor says “HOLD”.

With an 8.4% stake in Standard Chartered Bank supports the management; Top shareholder backs StanChart boss Sands: Peter Sands, the beleaguered Chief Executive of banking giant Standard Chartered, received public backing from the lender’s second-largest shareholder. Sands and Chairman Sir John Peace are under intense pressure following a profit warning last week and a slump in the share price.

Oil prices ended the week in red after a leading broker reduced its oil price target for 2015. Moreover, prices were further pressurised after OPEC nations increased oil output by 53,000 barrels a day to 30.9 million barrels in October, a 14-month high,. Separately, the EIA and the API both reported that oil inventories expanded in the week ended October 24. Brent crude oil prices declined 0.3% to $85.86/barrel.

Michael Spencer, the former Tory treasurer and founder of ICAP, has sealed a deal to sell his online spread betting firm, City Index, to a US rival for $118m (£73.9m). City Index , which is owned by Mr Spencer's private vehicle IPGL, has been bought by American group Gain Capital Holdings. The deal will allow the combined company to serve 235,000 customers in more than 180 countries with annual trading volumes of over $3 trillion.

Aviva sees new business rise by £690 million after major restructuring: Restructuring at insurer Aviva is paying off as reforms pushed through by Chief Executive Mark Wilson delivered a 15% increase in new business in the year to date, worth £690 million.

Starbucks brews up $588 million quarterly income: Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee chain, said its net income for the quarter ended 28 Sept­ember was $587.9 million (£367 million), compared with a loss of $1.23 billion in the same period a year ago.

U.K.’s housing boom squeezes out lower paid: Lower paid Britons have been increasingly unable to buy a house because of the combined impact of rising prices and new affordability checks, data from the Mortgage Advice Bureau showed. Help-to-buy sees high use: Just under 34,000 homes have been bought using the government’s Help-to-Buy scheme, re­quiring £1.42 billion of loans from the Treasury.