13.09.13 Friday Afternoon

Global markets were lifeless today as a raft of potential problems, including ambiguity over a solution to the Syrian conflict as well as fears that the Fed will begin reducing its stimulus measures at the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, resulted in investors stay on the side lines today. However, investors are judging each problem on its own merits and hence there a couple of reasons why the markets are not selling off today.

Firstly, despite the possibility that the dreaded tapering is rumoured to begin next week, some analysts believe that the US economy will still cope with the reduction in stimulus measures. The markets have over the last few months been gifted with a series of positive economic data from the US, including the encouraging results of officials’ attempts to control unemployment.

Secondly, with regards to the Syrian crisis, it seems world leaders are pushing for a more political solution to the crisis as the general view that engaging in military intervention without a consensus amongst world leaders could result in more harm than good.

Risers:

Imagination Technologies
The multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies company has signed a license agreement with MediaTek Inc., a semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions. Shares react favourable, up over 9 percent after they announced they will receive license fees and royalty revenue from the agreement.

Helical Bar
The property investment and development company have announced it has completed the acquisition of Huddersfield Retail Park, Beck Road in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire for 17 million pounds, a net initial yield of 7.2%.

Fenner
UBS initiates coverage of Fenner with a buy recommendation and target price of 460p. After a poor 1H, UBS says the shares have been unfairly punished and continue to discount further misses. "Whilst the end-market outlook is muted and we set our estimates at the low end of consensus forecasts, we believe the stock is still cheap on our numbers, despite the recent bounce," says UBS.

Weather Lottery
The AIM quoted lottery, gaming and leisure company, have bought Sormelle Ltd for £422,364 in shares, and agreed a new £250,000 secured convertible loan agreement from a consortium of private investors to help fund its working capital requirements following the acquisition.

Zanaga Iron Ore
Commodities giant Glencore Xstrata and joint venture partner Zanaga Iron Ore Company have announced they have revised their joint venture iron ore project in the Republic of Congo Brazzaville into a phased development project. This will help reduce the initial capital outlay needed for the project by about two-thirds with the Zanaga iron ore project being developed in two phases.

Fallers:

Polymetal International
Polymetal Cut to Underperform From Neutral by Credit Suisse

Pennon
Credit Suisse downgrades Pennon Group to underperform from neutral and lowers its target price to 610p from 670p. "We are increasingly concerned that pricing pressure could materialise on [Pennon-owned] Viridor's energy-from-waste facilities," it says. Adds the market is pricing in around 50% value accretion on Viridor's pipeline (versus Credit Suisse's estimate of around 10%-15%) and overlooking material downside risk

Kentz Corporation
Kentz shares continues its decline after another engineering company, M+W Group GmbH said it doesn't intend to make an offer for Kentz Corporation Ltd. This is a further blow for Kentz after AMEC announced yesterday they will not make an offer for the company.

Redhall Group
The engineering support services group have announced second-half trading is expected to be below management expectations with profits below market consensus due to activity levels and margins in the Nuclear segment, with some parts of the Engineering segment also adversely affected.

Motive Television
Has raised one million pounds before expenses by issuing five billion shares at 0.02 pence each, saying the proceeds will go towards its Tablet TV businesses in the U.S. and the U.K. and new projects expected to bring in revenue in the coming months.