SHARES STRONGLY UP/DOWN this week 02/01/06 (Master RSI)

WEEKEND PRESS

SATURDAY PRESS COMMENT

FT
THE LEX COLUMN comments on UK economy (Brown can look back on his long boom
with pride; but, like the best performances, it appears to be coming to a
close), UK housing market (for ordinary mortals, the days of rampant house
prices inflating away their massive mortgages are over), Reits (while the
conversion charge could prove a one-off deterrent, longer-term concerns are
restrictions on gearing levels and on single shareholder ownership) -
Opportunities overseas and online see odds improve for the new LADBROKES; the
prospects for the gaming company look bright following the 3.3 bln sale of the
HILTON hotels business (p.17) - Cash-rich defence groups preparing for the
flotation of government's QINETIQ; proposed float is controversial because
private investors will make huge profits (p.17)
- LONDON MARKET: GW
PHARMACEUTICALS (talk it will imminently unveil a deal)

Mail
SHARE TIPS FOR YEAR AHEAD:
NEXT, INTEC TELECOM SYSTEMS, EARTHPORT, FORTH PORTS, COMPASS, LLOYDS TSB,
PARTYGAMING, WILLIAM MORRISON SUPERMARKETS;
2005 tips:
BABCOCK INTERNATIONAL (+70 pct), GB GROUP (+35 pct), GLAXOSMITHKLINE (+20 pct),
FORTH PORTS (+19 pct), WICHFORD (+6 pct), INCISIVE MEDIA (+4 pct), LLOYDS TSB
(+3 pct), ARMOURGROUP (-54 pct), PHYTOPHARM (-77 pct) - MARKET REPORT: BRANDON
HIRE (hopes for agreed bid terms soon from a management team led by chief
executive Charles Skinner and finance director Chris Sims)

Express
MARKET REPORT: SAREUM HOLDINGS (hopes that good news is on the way about a
couple of major contracts), ABCAM (rumours that a licensing deal might be round
the corner)

Times
Directors' dealing: SURFCONTROL (non-executive chairman buys stock for 51,200
stg)
- Rumour of the day: 3DM WORLDWIDE (word that JM Finn, its stockbroker, has
been sounding out investors on a deeply discounted share placing)
- STOCK
MARKETS - LARGE CAPS: INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP (talk it could become a
target for Starwood of the US)
- TEMPUS: CHRYSALIS (investors wanting to bet on
a fast recovery could go for Chrysalis), DAILY MAIL & GENERAL TRUST, TRINITY
MIRROR, JOHNSTON PRESS (of the three, DMGT looks the most attractive, because it
is investing in new media, while trying to sell out of the regional press), SMG
(there must come a point when somebody will try to force change - a break-up -
where it is badly needed)

Guardian
Market forces: IQ LUDORUM (dotcom-esque share price rise seems to have been
fuelled by the recent appointment of Mike Muscato as chairman), BRANDON HIRE
(suggestions that chairman will not sell his 24 pct shareholding for anything
less than 200 pence a share)

Independent
MARKET REPORT: PLUSNET (hopes it will be swallowed by a bigger player),
HAVELOCK EUROPA (talk of strong trading)

Telegraph
QUESTOR COLUMN - Small cap, big yield; our choices for 2006:
LAMBERT HOWARTH, GAMES WORKSHOP, BRAEMAR SEASCOPE, ABACUS,
BRITISH POLYTHENE INDUSTRIES, WAGON
how last year's seven performed:
ATRIUM UNDERWRITING (total shareholder return
5.7 pct, BPI (72.7 pct), DAWSON HOLDINGS (9.6 pct), KELLER (86.7 pct), LOOKERS
(60 pct), MORGAN SINDALL (101 pct), SAVILLS (151 pct) - Financial forecasts:
Paul Feeney, Gartmore Investment Management: FTSE 100 6,000, top share WPP, top
sector Banking, top country Japan; Gavin Oldham, The Share Centre: 6,200,
COSTAIN, Construction, Japan; Mike Warburton, Grant Thornton: 6,100, PROVIDENT
FINANCIAL, International Traders with large overseas earnings, Japan; Justin
Urquhart Stewart, Seven Investment Management: 5,800, TALARIUS, Pharmaceuticals,
Taiwan; Paul Llott, Bates Investment: 5,850, LEGG MASON JAPAN EQUITY,
Technology, Japan; Alan Steel, Alan Steel Asset Management: 6,600,
NEW STAR
FINANCIAL FUND, Financials, America; Julian Chillingworth, Rathbone Unit Trust
Management: 4,900, ALLIANCE UNICHEM, Aerospace and Defence, Japan; Jeremy Tique,
Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust: 5,850, VODAFONE, Pharmaceuticals, Japan;
Patrick Evershed, New Star Select Opportunities: 5,500, CLEARSPEED, Technology,
China; Mark Harris, Savills Private Finance: 5,800, PRUDENTIAL, Life Assurance,
Japan; Trevor Williams, Lloyds TSB: 6,000, DRAGON OIL, Commercial Property,
Japan; Hilary Cook, Barclays Stockbrokers: 6,050, PRUDENTIAL, Information
Technology, Germany; Edward Bonham Carter, Jupiter Asset Management: 5,850,
KINGFISHER, Other Financials, Turkey; Clive Scott-Hopkins, Towry Law: 5,900,
NEWTON ORIENTAL, Asia, China; Mark Dampier, Hargreaves Lansdown: 6,000, BT,
Leisure, particularly gambling, Russia

* BRITISH AIRWAYS jets have suffered mid-air failures because of "systemic"
problems with their maintenance, air accident investigators reveal - Sunday
Times
* RANK preparing to return up to 300 mln stg to investors as part of a review
of its capital structure in which its dividend will be cut by as much as 30 pct
- Sunday Times
* Blackstone, the American buy-out firm, drawing up plans for a flotation of
SOUTHERN CROSS, the 1.5 bln stg nursing-home group it has created through a
string of acquisitions - Sunday Times
* Supermarkets will kill corner shops by 2015, MPs warn - Sunday Times
* MPs savage power of big four grocers; leaked Parliamentary report warns of
'food deserts' if supermarkets are allowed to expand unchecked - Sunday
Telegraph
* Bosses predict year of pain; two-thirds expect 2006 to be most difficult 12
months since economic downturn in Nineties - Observer
* NTL ponders 10 pct lift in VIRGIN MOBILE offer; the cable-television company
and its advisers at Goldman Sachs considering increasing the bid to about 360
pence a share - Sunday Times
* LSE: Are bidders 'fit and proper'? Leading members of LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE
make a desperate plea to Gordon Brown to intervene in the takeover bid by
Australian investment bank Macquarie - Mail on Sunday
* Competition Commission to pave the way for a takeover bid for LONDON STOCK
EXCHANGE by Euronext by removing the main impediment to a merger of the two
companies; later this month, it will announce that it would allow Euronext to
lower its 41 pct stake in LCH Clearnet over two years, rather than the typical
grace period of six months, following a takeover of LSE - Sunday Telegraph
* The number of public sector workers will pass 6 mln in 2006 for the first
time in 16 years, Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates - Sunday
Telegraph
* Britain's construction industry recorded its first drop in output for 11
years in 2005, despite government promises of large-scale public investment,
according to a report to be published this week; The Construction Products
Association will reveal that construction output dropped unexpectedly by 1.3 pct
last year, though it is expected to recover by a modest 0.9 pct this year,
before picking up to 3.1 pct in 2007 - Sunday Times
* Former chief executive of BPB, Richard Cousins, approached to take the top
job at COMPASS, the embattled contract caterer - Sunday Times
* Ferrari's Formula One team to mark its diamond anniversary in 2007 with a
multi-million pound sponsorship deal with DE BEERS - Sunday Telegraph
* HENDERSON GLOBAL INVESTORS emerges as favourite to snap up rival fund manager
GARTMORE for about 600 mln stg - Mail on Sunday
* Retailer HALFORDS criticised by the Department of Trade & Industry for
delaying payments to suppliers by up to four months - Mail on Sunday
* Russia set to cut gas supplies; dispute with Ukraine worsens; Moscow
insisting on five-fold price-rise; exports to western Europe could be threatened- Saturday FT
* Gordon Brown secures a 21 bln stg victory after the Office for National
Statistics rules that the chancellor does not have to take the Network Rail
bailout on his books - Saturday Times
* GLAXOSMITHKLINE wants rule change to fight pandemic; bird flu threat prompts
pharmaceutical group to call for companies to be able to co-operate on vaccines
- Saturday FT
* Retailers expect a busy holiday weekend after one of the most successful
post-Christmas weeks for several years - Saturday FT
* National Association of Pension Funds joins other corporate governance groups
in urging investors to vote against an incentive plan that could pay up to 10
mln stg to four directors of PERSIMMON - Saturday FT
* Fitch, the debt ratings agency, pours cold water on the bull run in MARKS &
SPENCER shares, saying that its view of the outlook for the retailer remains
negative - Saturday Times
* BERKELEY BERRY BIRCH, the struggling independent financial adviser network,
says the Financial Services Authority has yet to agree that its capital-raising
plans are adequate - Saturday FT
* WPP GROUP buys Bridge Worldwide, an Ohio-based marketing and interactive
agency
* French clothing distributor Groupe Vivarte may take control of Kookai's
British assets after the fashion retailer failed to renegotiate arrangements
with FORMINSTER, its UK franchise partner - Saturday Mail
* GCAP MEDIA, the UK's largest commercial radio broadcaster, receives at least
half a dozen offers for the nine local stations it has put up for sale -
Saturday Guardian
* Telefonica looks likely to quit Europe's largest mobile phone alliance in
order to secure regulatory clearance for its 17.7 bln stg acquisition of its
British rival O2 in the new year - Saturday Guardian
* Grupo Santander, the Spanish owner of ABBEY, in talks to buy back Abbey's
credit card operations, sold in 2001 to MBNA; analysts say it could pay more
than 300 mln stg - Saturday Mail
* APPIAN TECHNOLOGY, a company that supplies automatic number-plate recognition
systems for congestion charging and counter-terrorism, preparing to to float on
AIM on Tuesday, valued at 5.6 mln stg - Saturday Express