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At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.97% or $0.62 lower at $63.36 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract surged 6.07% or $3.66, to settle at $63.98 per barrel, shrugging off the earlier weakness to extend its recent rally after OPEC projected that demand for its crude oil would increase to about 29.3 million barrels per day in 2015, while demand for non-OPEC supplies would decrease by about 165,000 barrels per day. Additionally, the OPEC expects the boom in US oil supply to end this year.

Bookmaker William Hill has suspended betting on Greece leaving the Eurozone in 2015 after heavy betting on the 'Grexit'. The bookie also stopped taking money on which country would be the first to leave the single currency bloc, although rivals Paddy Power and Betfair were still offering odds of 3/1 and 13/8 respectively on Greece to leave the Eurozone in 2015. In a statement released on Thursday, Hills said a potential Greek exit had been heavily backed, with odds on Athens being the first country to leave the Eurozone shortening to as much as 1/5. "It is now looking increasingly likely that they [the Greek government] could begin the process of departing very shortly," said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe. The bookmaker said that it had also shortened the odds on Greece leaving the single currency before the end of the year from 5/1 to 3/1, adding that punters did not seem interested in backing Greece to stay in the Eurozone until the end of 2015. "We decided to pull the plug on the markets until either the decision to leave is taken, or the crisis point passes and a plan is put in place enabling the country to remain in," said Sharpe.

Oil explorer's shares more than doubles to 12.99 pence on receipt of development mining title for block in Madagascar ** Co says the Block 3104 Tsimiroro production sharing contract is first to enter into development phase in the country ** Stock poised for biggest intra-day gain ever and is top gainer on the FTSE Aim index in very heavy volumes

So far, the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming General Election seems to have had very little bearing on the level of housing transactions. It might yet have an impact, but even if it does we doubt it will last for long. With inflation continuing to fall, the Bank of England looks unlikely to push rates up for a while. This means lower cost mortgages look set to stay. Meanwhile rapid job creation continues to support household incomes at a time when real wages look to be starting to rise after an unprecedented period of weakness. Throw in the fact that the volume of new UK home building starts from a multi-decade low, at a time when the UK population is at a record high and it all looks pretty supportive. Meanwhile, supply in the housing market remains tight because banks are still reluctant to lend to small and medium-sized home builders. Not only does this help to support house prices, it also keeps competition for land down, allowing the likes of Persimmon to snap up land at prices they believe to be relatively cheap. Rising house prices combined with cheap land is a builder's recipe for healthy profits, margins and cash flows and suggests Persimmon's purple patch can last a while longer. Given its current strategy, a lot of that growth is likely to come back to shareholders in dividends or returns of capital. But the good times can't go on rolling forever and Persimmon's current valuation offers little margin of safety. The price to book ratio (P/B) is a good way of valuing house builders because it tells you how much investors are being asked to pay for the land and property a company owns. The higher the P/B the more expensively valued that company is on the basis of its assets. Persimmon currently trades on P/B of 2.3x, which is around a 25% premium to the sector, and a circa 80% premium to its long run average. While Persimmon is in a real sweet spot at the moment, we would remind investors that this remains a highly cyclical industry which is notoriously difficult to predict.

Miller Lite and Grolsch maker SABMiller delivered a strong finish to its financial year as strong growth in Africa and Latin America helped to accelerate top-line momentum in the fourth quarter. The world's second-largest brewer, which also owns a portfolio of soft drinks brands, said Asia Pacific also returned to growth during the three months to 31 March as lager volumes in China pushed into positive territory.

Organic sales from Diageo fell 0.7% in the third quarter, a much worse result than the small increase analysts had expected, as the drinks group blamed currency headwinds in Latin America and tough comparatives in the UK.

Having entered 2015 with a healthy forward order book, our strong sales performance over the first fifteen weeks of the new year has resulted in total forward sales revenue, including legal completions taken so far this year, being 7% higher than last year at £2.00 billion (2014: £1.87 billion).

Dixons Carphone to sell German phone retail business to Drillisch: Dixons Carphone shares climbed two% after the high street giant announced it will sell its German retail phone chain to telecoms firm Drillisch

Households’ heavy debts could hurt the U.K.’s economic recovery: Britons are still carrying heavy private debts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned yesterday, which could hamper the burgeoning economic recovery.

Abu Dhabi Investment pockets €750 million for Deutsche Annington: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority sold off its remaining 14% stake, or 23.5 million shares, in Deutsche Annington for close to €750 million

JD Sports shares look like a bargain: The U.K.’s demand for sports clothing shows no signs of slowing, as JD Sports reported record full year profits. The FTSE 250-listed company said pretax income rose 18% to £90.5 million in the 12 months to the end of January, while revenue climbed 25% to £1.5 billion. JD Sports said pretax profits totalled more than £100 million once losses from the disposal of struggling fashion brand Bank last November are excluded from the results. There was also improvement from outdoor clothing brands Blacks and Millets. Losses at this part of the business narrowed from £8 million last year to £4.9 million this time round. JD Sports said that it had been a particularly tough trading period for outdoor clothing following last year’s mild autumn and winter. The outdoor business, with just £170 million in sales, is a small part, or 11%, of the JD Sports empire. JD Sports said it was encouraged by the positive trading across its stores, but couldn’t comment further due to the “significant change” in the timing of Easter. Even after JD Sports’ strong trading performance, the shares have not soared this year, gaining just 5.8%. That leaves them behind the wider FTSE 250 index, which is up more than 11% over the same period. The shares are also still on a reasonable rating of 12.7 times forecast earnings, falling to 12 times next year. In comparison, stock in rival Sports Direct is trading on 15 times forecast earnings. The dividend payments are not much to write home about, but what investors are buying here is growth of the sports retailing business and a recovery in outdoor sales. On this set of results, both of those factors are on track, which leaves analysts’ forecasts for the year ahead likely needing upgrades. JD Sports at 539p+29 ½p. Questor Says “Buy”.

Tracsis a buy after solid first half: Tracsis reported a solid set of first-half results yesterday, and the U.K. software company is still an interesting investment prospect as it has the potential to expand across the U.S. The company has already signed passenger analysis contracts with most of the main U.K. rail operators, including Virgin, Go-Ahead, Arriva and National Express. Tracsis has also secured a five-year deal with Network Rail for its points-monitoring system - called remote condition monitoring. Tracsis reported robust results for the six months to the end of January - revenues increased 22% to £12 million and pretax profits climbed 13% to £3.2 million. Market consensus is for full year pretax profits to hit £5.5 million, giving earnings per share of 16.5p, on revenues of £23.6 million. There was strong trading elsewhere in the company, with software revenues more than doubling and the passenger analysis business delivering a 30% increase in revenues. Tracsis, which boasts a market capitalisation of £110 million, remains a high-risk prospect. The shares are highly valued, trading on 23 times the forecast earnings per share of 16.5p. However, the earnings forecast could prove conservative given the rapid growth and demand for their services. Tracsis at 392 ½p-16 ½p. Questor Says “Buy”.

Old Mutual’s mixed bag requires a thorough tidy-up: Less tidily, the FTSE 100 group remains a mixed bag of businesses, ranging from a 52% stake in South African bank Nedbank, to a U.K. wealth management company. As a result, shares in Old Mutual trade at an earnings discount of 15-25% to peers. Conglomerate discounts are not inevitable — look at Whitbread and Associated British Foods. But they will occur when earnings have been patchy. Old Mutual toyed with selling its Nedbank stake in 2011. Instead, Mr Roberts bolstered the balance sheet by disposing of Nordic financial services units. Just as well. Nedbank now features in a promising plan to expand bancassurance operations into fast-growing African markets such as Tanzania and Nigeria. Old Mutual should go further. It should demerge or sell its U.K. wealth management business, which comprises financial advice and fund management, and which produced profits of £227 million in 2014. The group’s successful flotation of a U.S. asset Manager last year points the way. A demerger would let investors in London and Johannesburg have as much or as little exposure to each metropolis’s financial sector as they chose. Old Mutual came out of Africa. That is where its future lies.

Asia Resource stock rises on possible bid from Argyle Street: Stock in the Indonesia-focused coal miner once known as Bumi rose more than 70% on Wednesday after one shareholder — Argyle Street Management, an Asian investor — announced it and a partner were considering a possible 41p per share offer for the U.K.-listed company.

Prices rise as fewer houses go on market: A chronic lack of houses coming on to the market is causing prices to creep up across the country once again.

Oil jumps on signs of higher demand: The oil price rose by more than a dollar after a leading energy think-tank lifted its forecast for demand this year and new data from the U.S. showed stockpiles growing less sharply than expected.

UK CB leading economic index climbed in February In the UK, the CB leading economic index advanced 0.60% on a MoM basis, in February. In the prior month, the CB leading economic index had recorded a rise of 0.20

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 4.36% or $2.63 higher at $62.95 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract climbed 3.23% or $1.89, to settle at $60.32 per barrel, after the Energy Information Administration stated that crude oil supplies in the US climbed 1.29 million barrels last week, less than forecasts and the slowest since January. Moreover, the International Energy Agency lifted its oil demand growth estimate for 2015 by 90,000 barrels per day to 93.6 million barrels per day, boosting the commodity further

Burberry looks to US to offset HK decline Luxury group’s growth in Japan limited by lack of appropriate retail space

Shawbrook to hire Iain Cornish as chairman Key independent figure in probe of HBOS collapse to take over role from Sir George Mathewson