11:40GMT 10Nov2008-Rank rises on legal tax win

Shares in Rank Group Plc. rise 3 percent to 65.25 pence as the bingo, casino, and online gaming firm receives 59.1 million pounds from the UK government in returned taxes.
"I would have thought it would have gone up a bit more than it has done today but we're in very difficult markets so I can understand what's happened," says one analyst, who estimates that the legal win is worth six or seven pence per share.
To see Rank's statement please click on

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11:27GMT 10Nov2008-Carr's Milling higher after profits double

Shares in Carr's Milling Industries Plc. advance 4.6 percent to 507.5 pence after it reports more than doubled full year profits and says it is well placed for the current financial year.
Pretax profits for 2007/08 increased by 113 percent to 12.9 million pounds, although 4.1 million of this was due to inventory and foreign exchange gains.
Investec Securities says while the group benefited from this windfall, there is equally a fair degree of solid underlying improvement from volumes and margin gains.
Excluding the windfall element, the broker expects further progress and is forecasting pretax profits of 9.9 million pounds for 2008/09. It reiterated its "buy" recommendation and 550 pence price target for the stock.
For more click on; company statement
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11:16GMT 10Nov2008-Italian banks up as seen stronger than European peers

Shares in UniCredit and other Italian banks are sharply higher, outperforming their European peers, as they are seen as stronger than European rivals, traders say.
"It makes sense that Italian banks do better than their European counterparts, given that no institution has looked for government help as yet," a trader in Milan says.
UniCredit rises 4.7 percent, Intesa Sanpaolo is up 4.5 and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena gains 2.7 percent.
The DJ Stoxx index of European banks is up only 0.66 percent.

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10:57GMT 10Nov2008-Powerleague up, Altium says "buy" and target price 60p

Shares in Powerleague, the five-a-side football centre operator, climb 15.3 percent after Altium Securities repeats its core 12-month "buy" rating and 60 pence target price.
Altium says shares in Powerleague, which reported in line full-year results at the beginning of October, have fallen over 70 percent in the last 12-months, meaning they are the hardest hit in the leisure sector.
The broker says the fall leaves peer Goals Soccer Centre, which it rates as "sell", trading at a 76 percent premium.
Altium says in paying down debt and ensuring 10 new centres are opened in 2008 the management are making the right decisions to maximise long-term shareholder value.

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10:54GMT 10Nov2008-NicOx up as data again backs painkiller

NicOx shares gain 8 percent as further analysis of clinical studies, presented at the American Heart Association in New Orleans, endorses the benefits of its experimental pain drug naproxcinod.

Piper Jaffray analysts say two scientific abstracts show additional differentiation of naproxcinod versus the older drug naproxen in terms of blood pressure benefits, with the difference proving much more significant in the daytime.
"This further supports our view that the BP (blood pressure) effects of naproxcinod are highly clinically relevant," they say.
NicOx already posted sharp gains last week on hopes for naproxcinod.

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10:35GMT 10Nov2008-Aurelian Oil & Gas up on Poznan farm-out deal

Shares in AIM-listed Aurelian Oil & Gas Plc jump 16.3 percent to 25 pence after it agrees to farm-out a 40 percent interest in the Poznan concessions in Poland to Canamens Energy Ltd in a deal which should secure sufficient funding to take the project to the next stage of its development.
Research firm Fox-Davies Capital says the deal effectively de-risks the Poznan asset almost entirely, and reduces the overall cash call to production to $6 million from $60 million previously.
"The transaction provides an implied floor valuation for the shares of about 36 pence, a 70 percent upside on the current price," the broker says, maintaining a "buy" recommendation.
For more click on; company statement

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10:21GMT 10Nov2008-Engineers jump on China stimulus plan

Shares in engineering groups ABB, Alstom and Siemens soar on China's plan to spend nearly $600 billion on stimulating its economy.
ABB has benefited from heavy investment in power infrastructure in emerging economies such as China and India, fuelled by economic growth there but its shares have more than halved in the last six months on fears of a global recession.
ABB shares jump 12 percent, one of the top gainers in a 5 percent stronger DJ Stoxx European industrial goods and services index, while France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens gain 8.2 and 7.1 percent respectively.
"With everything that's happening in China, it must help," a London-based trader says.

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10:07GMT 10Nov2008-Rentokil up, press reports FD to step down

Shares in Rentokil Initial rise 2.1 percent after weekend reports in the Financial Times that finance director Andrew Mcfarlane is to step down early next year, news which Seymour Pierce says is of little surprise.
In a note, Kevin Lapwood, an analyst at Seymour Pierce, says: "Mcfarlane was the only remaining member of the senior management team that sanctioned the acquisitions of Target Express and Pink Hygiene, both of which are now causing acute problems for the new management team."
Following Friday's third-quarter figures, Seymour Pierce reduces its full year 2009 pretax numbers for Rentokil down to 105 million pounds, with an adjusted EPS of 4.8 pence, while it cuts its stance to "sell" from "hold" with a target price of 40 pence.

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