STAGECOACH UPGRADED TO 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' VS 'UNDERWEIGHT' AT MORGAN STANLEY

FIRSTGROUP DOWNGRADED TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' VS 'EQUAL-WIGHT' AT MORGAN STANLEY

TODAY'S EXPECTED COMPANY NEWS

INTERIMS
EMI
First Property
Glotel
Land Securities Group
J Sainsbury
Marchpole
Scottish & Southern Energy
Touchstone
Vectura
Wyndeham Press

FINALS
Lonmin
Sanderson
Shed Productions

AGMs
Gladstone Pacific
St Barbara Mines

EGMs
None scheduled

OTHER
TNS monthly supermarket data

ECONOMICS
UK labour market report (0930 GMT)
BoE Nov inflation report (0930 GMT)

MARKET FORECASTS
* EMI Group PLC six months to September adjusted pretax profit 40.5 mln stg vs 36.9 mln, revenue 917 mln stg vs 851 mln
* J Sainsbury PLC six months to Oct 8 pretax profit before exceptional items and goodwill 119 mln stg, unchanged
*Scottish & Southern PLC six months to September. Barclays Stockbrokers forecasts pretax profits 342.1 mln stg vs 268.2 mln
* Shed Productions PLC year to August. Bridgewell Securities forecasts pretax profit 4.6 mln stg vs 3.2 mln, EPS 3.1 pence vs 5.2

LONDON (AFX) - Leading shares are expected to start the session under pressure, mirroring losses in the US last night, amid caution ahead of a key economic report from the Bank of England later today, dealers said.
According to spread-betting firm CMC, the FTSE 100 will open down 5 points at around 5435, carrying on yesterday's 30.4 points fall on the back of a revenue and margin warning from mobile phone group Vodafone.

MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,439.6 down 30.4
FTSE 250 8,097.0 up 7.8
DJIA 10,686.40 down 10.80
Nasdaq Comp 2,186.74 down 14.21
S&P 500 1,229.00 down 4.75
Tokyo: Nikkei 14,170.87 up 79.10
Hang Seng midday 14,647.19 up 19.78
Gold 468.05 usd (469.40 usd)
Oil - Brent Dec 54.05 usd (54.73 usd)

TODAY'S PRESS
* BPB investors demand more than 760 pence a share from Saint-Gobain - Independent
* Inflation falls to unexpected 2.3 pct; market reaction suggests traders are placing bets that Bank is more likely to consider interest rate cut - FT
* Philip Green said Bhs, his department store chain, is heading for a fall in operating profit of at least 30 pct this financial year, because of tough trading conditions - FT
* COMPASS faces more questions on fee deal - The Times

PRESS COMMENT
FT
THE LEX COLUUMNN comments on VODAFONE (it is genuinely surprising that the market is so upset), Germany it may be too early to paint a picture of vigorous German growth, but investors can certainly get their brushes out), Commerzbank (that it opted for an acquisition suggests one of its real motives is to bulk up in order to avoid being taken over itself), Copper (for now, it is too early to short base metals), Johnson & Johnson/Guidant (while its investors might take a dim view of J&J's bullying, they would be ill-advised to reject the new deal), Telstra (one of the stock's few compensations has been a generous yield, but even this is under threat)
Independent
THE INVESTMENT COLUMN: VT GROUP (buy), GW PHARMACEUTICALS (avoid), KEWILL SYSTEMS (worth a punt)
Times
Directors' dealing: EUROPEAN MOTOR HOLDINGS (non-executive chairman sells stock for 131,000 stg) - Rumour of the day: EMPIRE ONLINE (talk that a previously mooted bid from PARTYGAMING may appear by the end of the week) - TEMPUS: EMAP (no compelling reason to buy), WORKSPACE (buy), NORTHERN FOODS (avoid)
Express
SHARE WHISPER: Z GROUP (could cheer the market with better-than-expected half-year figures next week)
Mail
HOUSE OF FRASER (vague rumours of private equity interest)
Telegraph
QUESTOR: VODAFONE (if you can play for the long term, then hold on; if not, take what profits you have), VT GROUP (hold), BIG YELLOW (hold)

LONDON (AFX) - J Sainsbury PLC, Britain's third-biggest grocer, reported little changed underlying first-half profit as price cuts, oil-related cost pressures and bad debt charges at its banking unit, offset rising sales.
Profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and various other one-off items, from continuing operations nudged up to 118 mln stg in the 28 weeks to Oct 8 from 117 mln.
Sales, stripping out sales tax, climbed 5.4 pct to 8.3 bln stg, in line with a previous announcement.
"We still have a lot of work to do behind the scenes to ensure that we remain on track but the response to our initial progress endorses our belief in the attraction of Sainsbury's brand," chief executive Justin King said in a statement.
The company maintained its interim dividend payment at 2.15 pence per share.
Sainsbury's shares closed Tuesday at 291.75 pence, valuing the company at around 5 bln stg.
The shares have gained 21 pct since King outlined his revival plan, outperforming UK food retailing peers by 13 pct in that time.
Sainsbury was reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards for the first time.

LONDON (AFX) - EMI Group PLC delivered better-than-expected interim results after the release of two chart topping albums saw the UK record company increase its share of global music sales.
The group, home to acts such as the Rolling Stones and Kate Bush, reported a 9.0 pct rise in adjusted pretax profits to 41.0 mln in the six months to the end of Sept.
Sales over the period rose 5.8 pct to 924.6 mln stg after successful new releases from Gorillaz and Coldplay during the Summer, helping EMI to lift its market share to 13.1 pct from 12.5 pct.
The music giant was expected to post revenues of 917 mln stg and adjusted pretax earnings of 40.5 mln stg.

LONDON (AFX) - Scottish & Southern Energy PLC said strong growth in its generation and supply business helped it lift interim pretax profits before exceptionals and other items by 25.5 pct to 336.3 mln stg.
SSE said operating profits in the G&S business in the six months to Sept 30 rose by 41.8 pct to 190 mln stg, contributing 47 pct of the company's total operating profit in the first half.
Operating profit growth resulted from ongoing benefits from the group's newly acquired Ferrybridge and Fiddler's Ferry power stations and sustained growth in energy supply customer numbers to 6.5 mln at the end of October, among other factors.
SSE, which announced last week that it will hike energy bills by up to 13.6 pct from January 1 next year, said the profit growth was offset by the impact of high wholesale energy and carbon prices.
The company, which has been linked with a possible bid for rival Scottish Power PLC, did not comment in its results on the speculation, except to say it had maintained its balance sheet strength, giving it "the freedom to exploit its investment opportunities in the second half of this decade".
SSE said it plans to invest around 225 mln stg in the installation of flue gas desulphurisation equipment at its coal-fired generation plant.
It added that it had secured consent to develop what will be Scotland's
second largest conventional hydro-electric scheme, at Glendoe near Loch Ness.
It said its claim on the administration of TXU businesses continued successfully, with a second distribution of 48.7 mln stg being received from
the administrator.
The company said it is declaring an interim dividend of 13.8 pence per share, an increase of 13.1 pct. Adjusted earnings per share lifted by 21.9 pct to 28.4 pence.
It said it is on course to achieve its target of at least 4 pct real growth in the dividend payable to shareholders in each of the years to March 2008, with sustained real growth thereafter.
Chief executive Ian Marchant said SSE had delivered another very good financial and operational performance.
"SSE's focus has always been, and remains, the delivery of sustainable long-term real dividend growth," he said.
"We have consistently sought to achieve this by maintaining and investing in energy networks, adding to our generation portfolio, growing our energy supply business and developing further our presence in contracting, connections, gas storage and telecoms.
"We will maintain this approach and our emphasis on strong operational performance, for the rest of this financial year and beyond.
"The prospects for sustained real growth in the dividend remain
excellent."

Good morning all.

Good morning all

Definately an ex div day!

End-of-day Market Summary

What is it with recruitment sites?

6 months ago, the company I work for placed a advert on a site. The advert is still there and they are refusing to remove it. We don't get any of the Cv's, but that not the point - people think they are applying to us for a job, and they are not!

Anyone any suggestions how I can get it removed.