The Faraj List of Exploding Stocks Part 3.04 (FAR3)

MARKETS - 24/12/04

FTSE 100 4,798.1 up 10.4
FTSE 250 6,865.9 down 7.1
DJIA closed
Nasdaq Comp closed
S&P 500 closed
Gold 443.37 usd (438.27 usd)
Oil - Brent Feb 40.07 usd (43.39 usd)

BREAKING NEWS - BOXING DAY & BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY DEC 27
* Quake swamps Asian coasts; tsunamis claim many thousands of lives; casualties
in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka; biggest tremor in 40
years - Monday FT
* Insurers braced for quake bill; leading European travel groups such as TUI,
Thomas Cook and FIRST CHOICE sell holiday trips in the earthquake region; last
night, firms were sending empty planes to evacuate holidaymakers - Monday Daily
Mail
* MARKS & SPENCER will today launch the biggest sales drive in its 120-year
history in an attempt to lure shoppers from high-street rivals and kickstart a
critical year for Stuart Rose, the chief executive - Sunday Times
* Hordes of shoppers hit the high streets and malls on Boxing day, lured by the
promise of prices up to 50 pct below those advertised before Christmas - Monday
FT
* Boxing day sales get off to a brisk start, with reports of full car parks at
out-of-town shopping centres and large queues building in central London; HOUSE
OF FRASER, BOOTS, WH SMITH, WOOLWORTHS and MARKS & SPENCER rumoured to have been
among the worst performers this Christmas, although M&S denies it was forced
into the biggest sale in its 120-year history - Monday Guardian
* HSBC plans to expand in Asia's fledgling consumer finance market next year by
using the techniques of Household International, the US company it acquired for
6.8 bln stg last year, to attract lower-income customers - Monday FT
* Slide in house prices gathers pace; average cost of a house fell by 0.8 pct
in December, the sixth consecutive monthly fall and the worst since the housing
market went into reverse in the summer, says Hometrack
* A Competition Commission ruling leaves the door ajar for monopoly water
companies to merge with each other provided takeovers do not "prejudice the
ability" of Ofwat to impose proper controls - Monday FT
* Gerald Corbett, the former Railtrack chief executive, has been lined up to
chair BRITVIC when the soft-drinks group floats, possibly in the next few months
- Monday FT
* Tim Steiner, Jason Gissing and Jonathan Faiman could make 100 mln stg when
online retailer Ocado comes to the market; the founding trio own 27 pct and hope
to float it within 18 months with a price tag of 350 mln stg; The John Lewis
Partnership owns 43 pct - Monday Daily Mail
* Money broker COLLINS STEWART TULLETT suing arch-rival ICAP and two former
senior managers over claims that they organised a mass poaching of staff -
Sunday Times
* COLLINS STEWART sues rival ICAP for 35 mln stg - Sunday Telegraph
* City tycoon given a peerage by Tony Blair revealed to have been the fourth
man in the tangled love life of Kimberley Quinn; multi-millionaire Labour peer
Sandy Leitch, a close friend of the Prime Minister and Gordon Brown, the latest
member of the New Labour Establishment to be disclosed as having been involved
with the 44-year-old publisher of The Spectator magazine - Mail on Sunday
* Tony Blair being investigated by Parliament's ethics watchdog over
allegations he broke Commons rules by failing to declare a holiday spent with
one of the most powerful men in the tobacco industry, Alain Dominique Perrin -
Sunday Telegraph
* An American investment firm, Strategic Hotel Properties, emerges as favourite
to buy a portfolio of six hotels from INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP for about
234 mln stg - Sunday Times
* A consortium of the world's biggest oil groups, including BP, launch a bid to
build a 20 bln usd pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska across Canada to
Chicago - Sunday Times
* Investors warn ASTRAZENECA chief: one more 'hiccup' and you're out -
Independent on Sunday
* ASTRAZENECA hoping for good news from Japan to offset the setbacks that have
put pressure on chief executive Sir Tom McKillop; but it says 'no one has raised
the question' of McKillop, who earned 1.8 mln stg in 2003, stepping down
- Monday Daily Mail
* FSA ties up 194 mln stg deal for split-cap investors - Independent on
Sunday
* FSA agrees to drop split-cap investigation; after three years, the City
watchdog and financial firms reach 194 mln stg settlement package with no guilt
admitted - Sunday Telegraph
* Investors who lost money in the split-capital trust scandal will receive 194
mln stg in compensation after an agreement between the investment firms and the
Financial Services Authority - Sunday Times
* VODAFONE faces fines potentially running into millions of Australian dollars
after an investigation launched into complaints the telecoms giant has been
harming competition in the Australian mobile phone market; three local rivals
complain to Australian Communications Agency that Vodafone has not been
complying with rules that allow subscribers to keep their mobile phone numbers
when they swap to another provider - Independent on Sunday
* MYTRAVEL passes another milestone in its proposed 800 mln stg
debt-for-equity capital reconstruction after shareholders agree a plan that will
leave them with only 4 pct of the company - Monday FT
* Besieged building contractor JARVIS will this week announce it has won 100
mln stg in rescue loans to allow it to finish or sell its 14 half-built school
and hospital projects around the country - Sunday Express
* Alan Lovell, chief executive of JARVIS, will this week stun investors when he
is expected to report a loss of more than 250 mln stg; the write-off will
accompany half-year results that are due to be released on Wednesday - Sunday
Times
* Stricken support services group JARVIS staves off collapse after selling its
stake in the Tube Lines consortium in a 150 mln stg deal - Independent on Sunday
* COBHAM increases its 2004 acquisitions spending to 225 mln stg with the
33 mln cash purchase of H Koch & Sons, a life-support company, days after the
260 mln usd purchase of Remec radar group, the biggest deal in Cobham's history
- Monday FT
* Euronext preparing to raise 1.4 bln stg in the debt market to finance its
highly leveraged bid for the LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE - Sunday Times
* One of Britain's biggest private contractors, Willmott Dixon, planning to
float its support-services arm Inspace in a move that could value the business
at about 100 mln stg - Sunday Times
* Lazard, the investment bank, suffers a sharp drop in revenues and profits at
its key advisory business ahead of the group's planned 1.55 bln stg flotation
next year - Independent on Sunday
* The Cafe Rouge restaurant chain about to be bought by Legal & General
Ventures for between 80 mln stg and 90 mln - Sunday Telegraph
* EQUATOR EXPLORATION will announce this week that it has teamed up with Indian
state oil group ONGC Videsh to develop two oil fields off the coast of Nigeria -
Sunday Express
* INTERNATIONAL ENERGY agrees to acquire SCOTTISH POWER's gas supply business
for 15 mln stg
* Multiplex, the Australian construction company that is building Wembley
stadium, signs up for a new headquarters at Britain's most expensive office
building, 40 Berkeley Square - Monday Times

SUNDAY PRESS COMMENT
Independent on Sunday
SHARE REVIEW 2004: A fund tracking the FTSE All-Share index would have
generated a gross profit on a 100 stg investment of 8.73 stg; whereas if
you had opted for the IoS stocks, your 100 stg would have been whittled
down to 72.06 stg

Sunday Times
INSIDE THE CITY: Dominic O'Connell comments on retailers (retailers expect blue
Christmas; niche players are the best bet; NEXT, MONSOON and TED BAKER have
weathered the winter storms better than most), Oil (our pick is BP, whose share
price should be buoyed by the company's plan to return cash to shareholders when
possible; ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL, which is likely to become the second-ranked company
in the FTSE 100 when its lists as a single entity in London early next year,
should enjoy a fillip from its continuing restructuring, but it has dropped too
many clangers to inspire confidence), PARKDEAN HOLIDAYS (could be time for a
rerating)

Sunday Telegraph
THE MAVERICK: Luke Johnson doubts many stock market punters really know what
they're doing in oils and other resource stocks even if London has become the
mining finance capital of the world - EQUITY VIEW - BLUE CHIP VALUES: UNITED
BUSINESS MEDIA (buy), HBOS (keep buying); Look who's trading: INCHCAPE (two
directors sell stock; investors might want to lock in some profits now but we
believe it worth retaining a holding); SMALL CAP COMMENT: MARCHPOLE (keep
buying), MAINTEL (buy), CHURCHILL CHINA (buy), STAR ENERGY (worth tucking away
for the long-term) - TAKING STOCK: Edmond Jackson is less than sanguine on
prospects for 2005; he says that if TELECOM PLUS can meet its challenges, then
it should be a good share for 2005

MONDAY PRESS COMMENT
FT
THE LEX COLUMN comments on toymakers (with tastes becoming ever more
fragmented, consolidation looks like an odd solution; size is rarely the answer
when part of the challenge is to generate new ideas)

Telegraph
QUESTOR REVIEW: But for one nag (RAMCO ENERGY), our 2004 picks would have
passed the post ahead of the FTSE 100 index; the four stocks that saved our
bacon were NATIONAL GRID TRANSCO, AVIVA, PERSIMMON and NOVAR; while Questor
would recommend taking profits on the rest of its selection and cutting your
losses on Ramco, BSKYB is worth hanging on to yet

fjb/ma/ak