Latest News In Stock Market Investment and Research – July 03, 2009

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Rolls-Royce wins $470 million engine order

3 Jul 2009 at 3:58am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Rolls-Royce said it’s won an order worth $470 million at list prices to provide its Trent engines for seven Airbus A330s from Turkish Airlines.

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UPDATE: Friends Provident gets approval on F&C

3 Jul 2009 at 2:09am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Insurer Friends Provident said Friday that it had received court approval to hand its stake in F&C Asset Management direct to shareholders. Shares in the group rose as much as 10% Friday, when taking account of the value of F&C shares distributed to shareholders. Under the terms of the deal, which was first announced last year, shareholders will receive 1 F&C share for every 10 Friends Provident shares held. Shares in F&C rose 1.5%. [Updated to show the price move is adjusted for the distribution of F&C shares.]

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Euro-zone May retail sales slide 0.4%

3 Jul 2009 at 2:08am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Retail sales volume in the 16-nation euro zone fell by a larger-than-expected 0.4% in May, following a revised 0.1% increase in April, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Friday. Compared to May 2008, sales fell 3.3%. Economists had forecast a 0.2% monthly decline and a 2.7% annual fall.

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Novo Nordisk wins Europe OK for diabetes drug

3 Jul 2009 at 1:59am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Novo Nordisk said the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Victoza, or liraglutide, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in adults. Novo Nordisk will launch Victoza in the UK, Germany and Denmark during the summer and in other European markets during the second half of 2009 and throughout 2010. The launch won’t affect 2009 financial expectations, and the company will update its view on Aug. 6.

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Deutsche Telekom pefers asset swap for UK unit:rpt

3 Jul 2009 at 2:00am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Deutsche Telekom AG would prefer to swap an asset, perhaps in Central or Eastern Europe, for its T-Mobile U.K. business, to cushion the blow of pulling out of a big market, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the German telecoms giant’s thinking. According to the report Deutsche Telekom is particularly interested in Vodafone Turkey, because it would nicely complement its OTE business in Greece. As for a straight sale of the business, a price tag of 3 billion euros would be the absolute minimum, the report said. Earlier this week the Financial Times reported that both Vodafone and Telefonica are mulling a bid for T-Mobile U.K. while France Telecom’s Orange is thinking of a joint venture.

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U.K. June services PMI comes in below expectations

3 Jul 2009 at 1:46am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Purchasing managers reported smaller-than-expected growth in activity in the British service sector in June, according to the CIPS/Markit services purchasing managers index released Friday. The index slipped to 51.6 in June from a reading of 51.7 in May. Economists had forecast a rise to 52.5. A reading of more than 50 means a majority of managers saw a rise in activity, while a figure of less than 50 signals a contraction. The June reading marked the second consecutive month the index indicated growth in the sector. “The services sector is showing signs of life but it is still too early to tell if this is the start of a full blown recovery,” said David Noble, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

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EDF downgraded to equal-weight at Morgan Stanley

3 Jul 2009 at 1:09am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Morgan Stanley downgraded Electricite de France to equal-weight from overweight, saying it believes the stock will continue to trade at a discount to net asset value until there is more clarity on the new tariff system. The broker added, however, that the proposed new French rules could be a long-term positive for shareholders by making EDF “a largely regulated nuclear generator with higher visibility on earnings and cash flows than most liberalized generators, but reduced exposure to wholesale power prices.”

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Euro-zone June composite PMI rises to 44.6

3 Jul 2009 at 1:08am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The June Markit euro-zone composite purchasing managers index rose to 44.6 in June from 44.0 in May, exceeding a preliminary estimate of a rise to 44.4. The reading still indicates a contraction in activity. A figure of less than 50 signals a majority of managers saw a drop in activity, while a figure of more than 50 signals expansion. The June reading marked the smallest decline in output since September, Markit said.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


France Telecom downgraded to sell at UBS

3 Jul 2009 at 12:25am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — UBS downgraded France Telecom to sell from neutral, citing rising competition in France and concerns about growth in other countries including Spain and Poland. UBS said competition is rising as Bouygues becomes more aggressive in both fixed-line and mobile telecoms via the launch of its ideo discounted bundle. “We worry that the combination of France Telecom’s large balance sheet, ease of debt issuance and the prospect of weakening French cash flow could see a return of M&A,” the broker added. The downgrade was part of a quarterly update on the telecoms sector in which UBS cut earnings estimates by around 2% citing a reduction in mobile service revenue and foreign exchange moves.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


European shares edge higher in early trading

3 Jul 2009 at 12:07am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — European shares edged higher on Friday, taking back some of the previous session’s steep losses. Investors pushed financials higher early on Friday, with shares of insurance group Friends Provident up 7.3% in London after it released details about the separation of Foreign & Colonial , up 1.5%. Overall, the U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.3% to 4,248.65, the German DAX index advanced 0.4% to 4,737.96 and the French CAC-40 index climbed 0.4% to 3,127.28.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Bank of Ireland’s margin under pressure

2 Jul 2009 at 11:28pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Bank of Ireland said Friday that trading conditions remain challenging in its main markets and its primary objective continues to be maintaining the stability of the bank. The group said demand for new lending remains muted and that the lower interest rate environment and higher wholesale funding costs are having a significant negative impact on net interest margin. The economic trends that led the bank to forecast around 6 billion euros ($8.4 billion) of impairments through March 2011 are broadly as expected. The bank said it’s also continuing “to engage positively” with the National Asset Management Agency, which will inject funding into the Irish banking system when new legislation is agreed later this year. Including recent moves to strengthen its capital, the bank’s previously announced 9.5% Core Tier 1 ratio would have been around 10.5%, it added.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


BHP Billiton to sell Yabulu nickel refinery

2 Jul 2009 at 11:20pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Mining group BHP Billiton siad Friday it will sell its Yabulu nickel refinery in Queensland Australia to companies wholly owned by Professor Clive Palmer. The terms of the sale are confidential. BHP Billiton will write-down the carrying value of Yabulu by an estimated $500 million and a further estimated $175 million of unrecoverable tax benefits. These write downs will be reported as exceptional items in the results of for the year ended June 30.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Balfour Beatty trading in line with expectations

2 Jul 2009 at 11:15pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Engineering group Balfour Beatty said Friday that its fiscal-year trading performance continues to be in line with expectations set out in May, underpinned by continued infrastructure expenditure by customers, acquisitions and cost control. The firm said that its order book at the half year stage is expected to be broadly in line with the 12.8 billion pounds reported for 31 December 2008. The firm said that its cash position remains strong with average net cash in excess of 200 million pounds for the first six months of 2009.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Bawang, China Qinfa up sharply in Hong Kong debut

2 Jul 2009 at 8:43pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch)- Bawang International Group’s shares jumped 24% in their debut in Hong Kong late morning Friday, in an otherwise flat session for the Hang Seng Index. Shares of the Chinese herbal shampoo manufacturer and retailer were traded at 3.06 Hong Kong dollars (40 U.S. cents), just a notch below the day’s high of 3.08 Hong Kong dollars and well up from its initial public offering at 2.38 Hong Kong dollars. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s other initial public offering Friday, coal trader China Qinfa , managed a 10.3% rise in morning action.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Madoff kickbacks alleged in Austria: WSJ

2 Jul 2009 at 5:42pm

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Prosecutors in the U.S., U.K. and Austria are investigating a former Austrian fund manager who they believe was paid more than $40 million to funnel billions of dollars in investments to disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, according to a report published Thursday in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors believe Madoff paid the kickbacks to Sonja Kohn when she was chairwoman of Austria’s Bank Medici AG, according to the report. Earlier this week, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for fraud.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


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July 03 2009 03:34 am | Stock Market News

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