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10:24GMT 22Sep2009-Findel falls on poor education sales

Shares in Findel Plc fall 3.4 percent after the home shopping and education supplies firm says like-for-like sales for the first 23 weeks of the year decrease 5 percent.
Numis Securities analyst Nick Coulter says trading at the company's home shopping division -- down 3 percent to 4 percent -- is as expected, but its education division is disappointingly 10 percent to 12 percent adrift.

"With some schools delaying purchases, the trend may yet improve, however with public sector cuts increasingly coming to the political fore, the outlook will remain challenging in the near to medium term," says Coulter, who downgrades Findel to "hold" from "buy", but keeps his price target of 40 pence.
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09:45GMT 22Sept2009-CVS up on strong results, outlook

Shares in CVS Group Plc rise 13.7 percent after the veterinary services company posts a 72 percent rise in full-year operating profit, aided by growth across all its three operating divisions, and says it is confident of its future.

"We argue that three key features of the CVS model are highly attractive -- making acquisitions at multiples well below its own, increased scale driving enhanced gross margins from improved supply terms, and head office leverage as the overall business grows," says analyst James Wheatcroft of Evolution Securities.
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09:06GMT 22Sep2009-Highland Gold rises after results

Shares in Highland Gold Mining gain 5.2 percent after the company posted a 70 percent rise in first-half net profit, which prompts Cazenove to upgrade its rating to "inline" from "underperform" and raise its earnings estimates.
The broker, which describes the results as "solid", increases its EPS estimates for 2009 and 2010 by 75 percent and 17 percent respectively, adding "HGM remains a cheap, leveraged high risk gold play".
Cazenove expects the re-rating of the shares -- up 102 percent in the year to date -- to continue "as the market has increasing confidence in the company's earnings growth and assign(s) a higher probability weighting to its development projects."
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09:01GMT 22Sep2009-Severn Trent falls on rights issue fears

Shares in Severn Trent shed 2.3 percent as investors fret over the possibiliy of a rights issue from the water company as highlighted in a downgrade by Evolution Securities on Monday.
Cutting its rating to "add" from "buy", Evolution said in a note that Severn Trent's current debt rating requires adjusted interest cover of 1.6-1.8 times.
However it notes regulator Ofwat's draft determination for allowed water sector price increases for 2011-2015 would drop Severn Trent's interest cover to 1.3 times, meaning that the firm would likely require a rights issue.
The broker said that although Ofwat's final price determination is not due until November, there is a possibility that Severn Trent could launch a cash call ahead of that, and even with a rights issue, Evolution estimates that a dividend cut would still also be required.
Other UK water companies also suffer from worries over likely sector cash calls, with defensive issues also cold-shouldered once again as investors' risk appetite reappears.
United Utilities is the top FTSE 100 faller, down 2.5 percent, while Scottish & Southern Energy lose 0.5 percent, mid cap Pennon Group falls 0.2 percent, and Northumbrian Water drops 1.8 percent, in an othewise broadly firmer market.

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08:30GMT 22Sep2009-Booker up; Investec bullish

Shares in Booker rise 1.8 percent as Investec Securities repeats its "buy" rating on the British cash and carry retailer after a recent trading update, with a target price of 45 pence, while upgrading its earnings estimates.
"The strategy is delivering good momentum in revenue and profit and there is potentially more to come as the group looks to build further on its delivered business and it explores overseas opportunities," says the broker in a note.
Investec raises its 2010 EPS estimate for Booker to 2.9 pence from 2.71 pence, while upping its 2011 and 2012 earnings forecasts by 7.1 and 2.4 percent respectively.

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08:25GMT 22Sep2009-Shire higher; Jefferies upgrades

Shares in Shire add 2.4 percent to 1095 pence, outperforming the FTSE 100 index and its blue chip pharma peers as Jefferies ups its rating to "hold" from "underperform" with an increased target price of 1,050 pence, up from 770.
The broker says in a note that in the year-to-date, Shire shares have underperformed the UK market by 10-15 percent, though they have recently outpaced the healthcare sector on the setback to competitor Genzyme and M&A speculation.
Jefferies raises its EPS forecasts for Shire by 3-5 percent for 2010 onwards, mostly on the back of increases to forecasts for the firm's Vyvanse and Intuniv drugs.
The broker says that fundamentally it still believes Shire is overvalued at current levels, trading around 20 percent above its 900 pence net present value sum-of-the-parts estimates.
However, Jefferies adds, given an upcoming earnings acceleration, with an impressive 22 percent EPS compound average growth rate forecast for 2010-2013, it believes the stock will retain a premium rating relative to peers and the UK market.

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07:54GMT 22Sep2009-Oxford Bio update spooks investors

Shares in Oxford Biomedica fall as much as 12 percent after investors are spooked by a clinical update which reiterates the results of a late-stage trial where the company missed its key goal.
"This is a classic case of the market reading the headline and not understanding the real implication of the detailed data," says Ian Wainwright, Managing Director of Life Sciences Specialist Sales at Canaccord Adams.
He points to the positive news in the announcement, which in fact shows that the drug may still help a subset of patients.
"I'd say the sub group analysis in the trial is actually quite positive," adds Paul Cuddon, analyst at KBC Peel Hunt, reiterating his "buy" stance.
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07:50GMT 22Sep2009-Carnival higher; ML adds to Europe 1

Shares in Carnival Corp. gain 2.8 percent, outperforming a 1.0 percent by the FTSE 100 index as Banc of America-Merrill Lynch adds the stock to its Europe 1 list.
The broker says its Europe 1 list represents a collection of stock recommendations from its research analysts and is designed to offer investors access to some of its best research ideas.
Merrill Lynch notes that, for the month ended August 28, the Europe 1 index increased in value by 5.2 percent, compared to an increase in value of 4.7 percent for the FTSEurofirst 300.

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07:51GMT 22Sep2009--Aveva falls; Piper Jaffray downgrades

Shares in Aveva shed 1.6 percent as Piper Jaffray cuts its recommendation on the engineering software group to "underweight" from "neutral" on valuation grounds.
The broker ups its target price for Aveva to 804 pence from 670 pence to reflect an earnings multiple more in line with its sector peers.
"Aveva has had a strong run in recent weeks and our analysis suggests that there is nothing in the end market dynamics to justify that stock reaction," says the broker in a note.
Piper Jaffray says Aveva trades on 21.2 times estimated 2010 earnings, a premium to the sector, despite the availability of finance for customer capital expenditure projects showing no real improvement and shipyard order intake remaining very low.

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07:30GMT 22Sep2009-FTSE Small Caps up 0.1 pct at the open

The FTSE Small Caps index is 0.1 percent higher in early trade, taking its cue from, but underperforming the blue chips, which gain 0.7 percent and the mid caps, which add 0.4 percent.
Minerva jumps 16.9 percent as the indebted London office developer says it has refinanced, extended or restructured loans totalling more than 750 million pounds, allaying fears it could fall victim to the persistent credit drought.
Findel falls 5.9 percent after the British home shopping and education supplies firm says like-for-like sales from continuing operations for the first 23 weeks of the year fell 5 percent.

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