Glance-STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-CTS Eventim plunges on news rivals may merge

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10:47GMT 04Feb2009
CTS Eventim plunges; potential peer merger weighs

Shares in entertainment event management company CTS Eventim plunge 11.3 percent on news that peers Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc and Live Nation Inc may unveil a merger as soon as this week.

Ticketmaster spokesman Albert Lopez declined to comment. Live Nation officials were not immediately available.

'Overall, a merger of those two world market leaders in the area of concert events, including the ticketing business, would significantly shift the competitive relation in the world market, with negative effects on CTS as a tendency,' writes DZ Bank in a note.

A merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation would create a company with a combined market value of $741 million compared with CTS's 630 million euros ($821 million), according to data provider StarMine.

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10:45GMT 04Feb2009
JD Sports up; sees FYs ahead of expectations

Shares in JD Sports climb 10.3 perecent after the sports fashion retailer says it sees full-year 2009 underlying pretax profit exceeding market expectations, prompting Investec Securities to repeat its 'buy' rating.

The statement comes on the back of a better than expected Christmas trading period, when JD had expected negative like-for-like sales trends, but in the event a positive uplift was reported.

'We believe consensus PBT (pretax profit) forecasts will move from 48 million pounds to around 50 million pounds,' says Investec in a note.

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10:07GMT 04Feb2009
SMT Scharf gains on preliminary figures

Shares in SMT Scharf, a German supplier of railway systems for the mining sector, gain 10.8 percent after the company releases late on Tuesday preliminary full-year 2008 results, saying it exceeded its outlook for earnings before interest and tax.

'The figures are very positive. I didn't expect them to be that strong on the margin side,' says GSC Research analyst Klaus Kraenzle.

'The dividend proposal (0.85 euros per share) is a great surprise, too.'

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09:57GMT 04Feb2009
Premier League rights win boosts BSkyB

Shares in BSkyB, Britain's dominant pay-tv group, rise 2.6 percent after it secures the rights to four out of the six available packages to screen live English Premier League matches for the 2010 to 2013 seasons, prompting UBS to repeat its 'buy' rating.

With a second round of bidding yet to get underway for the two remaining packages available, UBS says Sky may look to acquire a fifth package to strengthen its hold over the rights.

'Sky faces less competition for the rights than in the previous auction and there is scope for rights deflation,' the broker adds.

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09:49 GMT 04Feb2009
Oranjewoud shares up on US contract win

Shares in Oranjewoud rise as much as 11 percent before slipping back slightly to be among the top three gainers in a flat Amsterdam market on news after market close on Tuesday it has won a $138 million soil sanitation contract in the United States.

The multiple-year contract involved 300 fuel stations and was awarded to Oranjewoud by ConocoPhillips and Pacific Convenience and Fuels.

'This is good news, but the free float is a reason that not too many people are looking at the stock,' SNS Securities analyst Edwin de Jong says.

Oranjewoud is 90 percent owned by company director Gerard Sanderink.

De Jong adds, however, that the contract win demonstrates that the environmental market in the United States is still pretty good.

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09:47GMT 04Feb2009
Acerinox rallies on Nisshin buy, despite demand woes

Acerinox rises 4.3 percent to 10.29 euros after Japan's Nisshin Steel Co. shows its confidence in the Spanish stainless steel maker by raising its stake to 15 percent from 11.3 percent, traders say.

'Nisshin bought a stake and has confidence in the company despite the current situation, it could have a bit further to run in the long term, that's why the share has responded, although with little volume,' says a trader at Ibersecurities in Madrid.

Another trader based in the Spanish capital said Nisshin's move should be taken as good news but still kept a 'sell' rating on the stock: 'We think Nisshin's move is friendly, not aggressive, as Acerinox expands in the Far East'.

Traders say news that Acerinox is in talks with workers over temporary layoffs is already factored into the share price, as is falling demand, which was revealed in worse than expected Q4 results from Finnish rival Outokumpu.

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09:34GMT 04Feb2009
Swisscom underperforms after UBS downgrade

Shares in former Swiss telecoms monopolist Swisscom fall 2 percent, against 0.4 percent drop in the Dow Jones Stoxx European telecoms index, after UBS downgrades its rating to 'neutral' from 'buy' and cut its price target to 385 Swiss francs from 420.

'UBS downgraded Swisscom today and there's not been much other news, so that's clearly the main reason for the fall,' a trader says.

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09:32GMT 04Feb2009
Redhall higher; starts Q1 trading strongly

Shares in Redhall gain 2.2 percent after the engineering support services group says it has begun the first quarter strongly, with pretax profits ahead of its expectations.

'With positive fundamentals, we view the share price reaction to the Sea Dragon news as overdone, and the current share price therefore as a buying opportunity, hence our trading 'buy' on this stock,' says Altium Securities in a note.

Redhall said late January that Sea Dragon Offshore decided not to continue with an oil rig fit-out, which had a contract value of about 9 million pounds, and was expected to contribute about 1 million pounds to operating profit in the year to end-September 2009.

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09:30GMT 04Feb2009
Munich Re falls on weaker than expected renewals

Shares in Munich Re fall 4.1 percent, the biggest losers in Frankfurt's top-flight DAX index, after the world's biggest reinsurer reports January contract renewals below market expectations, traders and analysts say.

'The premium income volume has contracted by 3 percent while we had expected
4 percent growth,' says LBBW analyst Per
Ola Hellgren.

Analysts at DZ Bank and Merck Finck say the 2.6 percent price rise reported by Munich Re for its January renewals is below expectations and weaker than the 3 percent reported by German rival Hannover Re on Tuesday.

'The outcome of January renewals looks somewhat disappointing at first glance. We are surprised that premium volume declined in an environment of rising demand and hardening rates,' says DZ Bank analyst Thorsten Wenzel.

The DJ Stoxx European insurance index is up 1.1 percent.

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09:23 04Feb2009
International Power falls on Citi downgrade

Shares in International Power fall 1.2 percent after Citigroup downgrades its rating on the power station operator to 'hold' from 'buy' and lowers its price target to 290 pence from 352 pence, citing a significant deterioration in the outlook for merchant markets.

'The global economic slowdown has significantly reduced forward power prices and spreads in the merchant markets,' Citigroup says in a note.

'Our rating change and target price reduction are based on the deterioration in the outlook for the merchant markets, the fact that earnings are being propped up by currency translation and fall in the average multiples on which IPR's peers trade.'

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09:22GMT 04Feb2009
HHLA gains; reaches FY targets

Shares in port operator Hamburger Hafen rise 2.6 percent in Frankfurt's midcap index after the company says it reached its full-year goals and as traders and analysts say the company's weak outlook was already factored into the battered share price.

'We assume a difficult year 2009 and expect a decrease in container volumes, which could be in the double-digit range for the first half of the year,' LBBW writes in a note.

'We think this is already factored into the price.'

The company says that it is well equipped for the challenges of the current economic crisis, 'the extent and duration of which cannot at present be predicted'.

'Shares in the company have been hammered this year,' says a local trader.

'With low trading volumes, I think some people may have bought in thinking that the numbers weren't too bad.'

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09:10GMT 04Feb2009
Informa up on new 'buy' rating, deal talk

Shares in British publishing and conference group Informa rise 6 percent after Citigroup initiates coverage with a 'buy' rating and its chief executive tells the Financial Times he does not necessarily see the group's future as independent.

'We had proper talks with UBM and we had more than proper talks with the private equity guys,' Peter Rigby says in an FT interview, referring to merger negotiations last year, both of which ultimately failed.

'We did not prepare defence documents or barricade ourselves in,' he says, adding that Informa can also sell parts of the business if necessary.

Citigroup analyst Thomas Singlehurst writes in a note he sees Informa, a business-to-business publisher, as structurally secure if cyclically challenged, and sees more than 40 percent upside to the bank's target price of 350 pence.

He adds that Informa's discount of at least 30 percent to peers is unwarranted, despite the group's high debt. Informa trades up 6.2 percent at
249.5 pence, the top gainer in a 1.4 percent
higher European media index .

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09:13GMT 04Feb2009
Roche down 8 pct on results, outlook

Swiss drugmaker Roche falls 8 percent to a 150 Swiss francs, against a 2 percent decline in the Dow Jones Stoxx healthcare index, after its full-year profit disappoints investors and the group says it sees growth slowing this year.

'The result was quite a bit below expectations,' a trader says, adding that the outlook is weighing the stock. 'It's not so confident anymore.'

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09:13GMT 04Feb2009
Provexis up as partner launches new juice

Shares in Provexis rise 5 percent after it announces that its anti-thrombotic Fruitflow product will be included in a line of fruit juices that will be on supermarket shelves next month.

'They shouldn't have any risk, it should just be a matter of receiving revenues,' says analyst Robert Sanders at Arbuthnot, adding that the major change would be if the company's technology was included in products launched by development partners Coca-Cola or Unilever.

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09:10GMT 04Feb2009-Deutsche Bank up on hopes of strong outlook
traders

Shares in Deutsche Bank rise 5.8 percent, topping the DAX leaderboard and outperforming European sector peers, on hopes that Germany's biggest bank will be upbeat about 2009 prospects when it reports fourth-quarter and full-year results on Thursday, traders say.

'There is a rumour that they (Deutsche Bank) will report an excellent first month,' a trader says, referring to January 2009.

'There are hopes that they have written off everyting 'bad' in the fourth quarter and have therefore been able to get off to a good start in 2009,' the trader says.

Another trader also cites market talk of a positive outlook from Deutsche Bank on Thursday.

Deutsche Bank said on Jan. 14 it expected a fourth-quarter loss of 4.8 billion euros. A Reuters poll of analysts point to market expectations of a full-year 2009 net profit before minorities of 2.5 billion euros.

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09:03GMT 04Feb2009
Entelos jumps 42 pct after GSK deal

Shares in Entelos, a specialist in producing computer simulations of diseases for pharmaceutical companies, jump over 40 percent to 4.25 pence after the company signs a deal with GlaxoSmithKline.

'Today's announcement that GSK will use their Hematopoeisis platform gives us re-assurance that Entelos' services are still in demand from the major pharma companies,' says analyst Paul Cuddon at KBC.

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08:55GMT 04Feb2009
FTSE small caps up 0.2 percent early

The FTSE small caps rise 0.2 percent, as the UK market starts in positive mood following a late rally on Wall Street on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 is up 0.4 percent and the Mid Caps gain 1.1 percent.

Quintain Estates and Development climbs 20 percent, as the company tasked with the regeneration of a large swathe of London, cuts its debts, keeps its covenants in tact and says it is on course to pump 100 million pounds back into its business this year. Its share have fallen 85 percent since Sept. 18, 2008.

Chloride, the power protection company, is up 4.5 percent on the back of its trading update, which analysts at Investec says is inline with its forcecasts.

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08:58GMT 04Feb2009
Sage slides on slowing European sales

Shares in Sage Group slide 4.1 percent to 178 pence as the accountancy and business software firm says sales in Europe slowed and North America remained challenging in the first quarter.

Derek Brown at Seymour Pierce says: 'Whilst Sage has a strong recurring revenue base, the recent cost-cutting in the business software market (Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP have all announced significant headcount reductions), and the worsening Eurpean environment, simply reinforce our concerns over the outlook for the medium term.'

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08:53GMT 04Feb2009
IT Holding up sharply on investor talks

Shares in fashion company IT Holding are up nearly 20 percent after it said it received an expression of interest from a foreign fund which includes a capital increase and the repurchase of a bond.

A source close to the operation said it is in talks with private equity fund Kingsbridge over a 100 million euros investment in the Italian group.

IT Holding shares were suspended Tuesday pending the release of the statement, which came out late on Tuesday.

'It is positive because someone is ready to put money into the company. On the other side there are a lot of problems,' an analyst, who asked not to be named, said.

Such a deal is positive for the bondholders but may not provide sufficient funds to develop the group medium-term, while existing shareholders will see their stakes diluted, the analyst said.

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08:47GMT 04Feb2009
Centrotherm up, boosted by U.S. peer GT Solar

Shares in German solar power equipment maker Centrotherm Photovoltaics rise 1.5 percent in Frankfurt's technology index, after DZ Bank points to statements of U.S. peer GT Solar, saying that financing conditions in China -- where Centrotherm operates -- improved over the last two months.

'This is very positive read-across for Centrotherm (and to a lesser degree also for Roth & Rau) which have some 65 percent revenues in Asia (and a good portion of that in China) and also a heavy exposure in their order backlog to China,' DZ Bank writes in a note, with a 'buy' rating on Centrotherm.

Shares in Roth & Rau are up 1.2 percent.

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08:43GMT 04Feb2009
Office2office up on renewal of Barclays agreement

Shares in Office2office rise over 5 percent as the office product supplier announces the renewal of its arrangements to supply the Barclays Group for a term of two years from Feb 1.

Altium Securities, which has a core 'buy' recommendation on the stock, lifts its trading recommendation to 'buy' from 'neutral'.

'The renewal will give added confidence ahead of the NHS renewal,' says the broker in a note.

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08:36GMT 04Feb2009
Vinci gains on Q4 sales

Shares in public works group Vinci rise 1.8 percent to 26.96 euros following reporting fourth quarter sales after close on Tuesday.

Natixis analysts says the figures give 'no surprise nor comfort' but reiterates a 'buy' rating with a 38 euros target.

Dexia also maintains a 'buy' rating.

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08:31GMT 04Feb2009-ITE up; Altium ups to 'buy' after sell
off

Shares in ITE Group rise 2 percent as Altium Securities upgrades its core rating to 'buy' from 'hold', on valuation grounds, having seen the exhibition and conference organisers' shares slide 14 percent after its trading update on Jan. 27.

Altium says ITE's current valuation does not reflect 'the strength of the group's underlying events, the presence of an experienced management team and an extremely robust financial position'.

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08:32GMT 04Feb2009
Heidelberger Druck up on Deutsche Bank upgrade

Shares in Heidelberger Druck, the world's largest printing press maker, rise 5.6 percent to the top of Frankfurt's midcap index, after Deutsche Bank upgrades the stock to 'hold' from 'sell' and keeps its price target of 5 euros after the company released better-than-expected third-quarter results on Tuesday.

'The fact that Heidelberg managed to break even at the operating level despite sales down 19 percent demonstrates that the restructuring plan is working better than we expected,' Deutsche Bank writes in a note.

'With the shares at 3.55 euros at the time of writing, our unchanged target price of 5 euros suggests upside and a 'sell' recommendation is therefore no longer appropriate.'

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08:31GMT 04Feb2009
Bank of America upgrade to 'neutral' boosts Metro

Shares in Metro AG rise 2.3 percent, making them one of the top gainers among German large caps, as Bank of America Merrill Lynch raises it stance on the retailer to 'neutral' from 'underperform', pegging its price target at 30 euros per share.

In a note to clients, the brokerage highlights Metro's current low share value and says while the vitality of some of its divisions will take longer to prove, Metro's 'lowest in sector' valuation, upcoming detail on strategy to be issued with its full-year results and cost savings should all help its shares.

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08:23GMT 04Feb2009-UK
listed Kazakh miners up on Kazakhstan devaluation

Shares in Eurasian Natural Resources Corp and Kazakhmys outperform other UK-lised miners, up 4.9 and 5.5 percent respectively, boosted by Kazakhstan's currency devaluation, traders say.

'Both Kazakhmys and ENRC are beneficary of the devaluation in Kazakhstan,' a trader says.

Kazakhstan's central bank radically widens the tenge's trading corridor, allowing the currency to drop by almost a fifth from the previous day's close.

ENRC reports a 22 percent fall in fourth-quarter production of ferroalloys, its most profitable metal, and reiterates a gloomy forecast for 2009.

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08:24GMT 04Feb2009
Reed Elsevier gains on Morgan Stanely upgrade

Shares in Reed Elsevier gain 2.6 percent after Morgan Stanley upgrades its rating for the media company to 'overweight' from 'equalweight'.

'We see it as a relatively safe home for funds in the media sector, with a defensive profile and decent growth prospects,' Morgan Stanley says in a note.

'We favour the professional publisher group and Reed is, in our view, the best-quality European professional publisher.'

Morgan Stanley reiterates its price target of 590 pence for Reed Elsevier.

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07:04GMT 04Feb2009
European stocks set to extend rally; earnings eyed



European shares are set to open higher, tracking gains in U.S. and Asian stock markets, with the focus on corporate earnings for the quarter to Dec. 31 and a slew of economic indicators.

Futures for the DJ Euro Stoxx, for Germany's DAX and for France's CAC are up around 0.6 percent.

Europe's benchmark FTSEurofirst 300 index advanced 1.9 percent on Tuesday, led by telecoms after strong results from Vodafone .

On the economic data front, eyes will be on euro zone services PMI and in the United States on the ADP employment report and non-manufacturing ISM.



MAJOR EUROPEAN COMPANIES REPORTING:

Prelim Munich Re

Final Metso Oyj

Final Roche

Final Sandvik

New business Aviva

Trade Sage Group

H1 BHP Billiton

Q4 Alcatel Lucent

Q4 sales Fonciere des Regions SA

Q4 Alfa Laval

Q4 Electrolux



MAJOR U.S. COMPANIES REPORTING:

Q2 Cisco Systems

Q2 Sara Lee

Q3 Ralph Lauren

Q4 ITT

Q4 Kraft Foods

Q4 Philip Morris

Q4 Prudential Finacial

Q4 Time Warner



MAJOR MACROECONOMIC DATA: (GMT)

0843 IT PMI svcs Jan

0848 FR PMI svcs Jan

0853 DE PMI svcs Jan

0858 EZ PMI svc and comp Jan

0928 GB PMI svcs Jan

1000 EZ Retail sales Dec

1315 US ADP Employment Jan

1500 US ISM Jan



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Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKSNEWS =4

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