■ Rail and bus group Arriva is trading in-line with expectations and said there is evidence of a recovery in passenger revenue growth in its UK trains division.
■ With just two weeks to go before the year end, oil and gas facilities service provider Wood Group believes 2009 earnings will be in-line with expectations.
■ Sportswear retailer JJB Sports reported a 29 per cent decline in underlying sales and remains cautious about Christmas and New Year trading.
■ Restaurant group Clapham House served up a 20 per cent decline in half-year profit but said it was on track to meet third quarter company forecasts.
■ Shares in Goals Soccer fell back after the five-a-side football pitch operator said disruption caused by the snow in February and weak trading in summer will reduce full-year profits by about £0.7m.
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■ Canadian bank Toronto Dominion has been fined £7m by the Financial Services Authority for failures in pricing of sophisticated financial products.
■ Advanced Power Components (APC) posted losses in line with expectations in the year to 31 August as the distributor of electronic components for niche markets felt the impact of tough economic conditions and faced reorganisation costs.
■ Shopping trolley maker Supercart said sales in the USA for 2009 will be below initial expectations, as a result of customers deferring orders until the first quarter of next year.
■ Engineering group Senior said it anticipates that full-year adjusted pre-tax profit will be slightly ahead of company expectations.
■ Construction and regeneration group Morgan Sindall is still on track to meet expectations for the current year.
■ Estate agent Savills expects its underlying performance for 2009 to be significantly ahead of its previous forecasts but said it remains cautious about UK residential
■ Car dealer Inchcape expects 2009's performance to be slightly ahead of expectations.
■ Personal care products group McBride expects operating profit in the first-half to exceed forecasts.
■ Sales in last two months at builders merchant Travis Perkins have been a tad ahead of expectations.
■ Oil and gas firm Melrose Resources currently forecasts an average daily production rate in 2010 of 40.0 Mboepd, which is about 4 per cent higher than current 2009 market guidance of 38.5 Mboepd.
■ Dechra Pharmaceuticals is beefing up its board with the appointment of industry veteran Bryan Morton as a non-executive director.
■ Ready to cook meals maker Uniq has finalised details of the sale of its Netherlands business units.
■ Chrysalis made "excellent progress" in what it called a "very encouraging" year, trumping expectations as predicted at its last update in October.
FOR A SUMMARY OF LATEST MOVEMENTS IN EQUITY, COMMODITY AND CURRENCY MARKETS, SEE FT.COM'S MARKETS PAGE
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NEWSPAPER SHARE TIPS (17 DEC 2009):
Full round-up of newspaper share tips (sourced from Sharecast)
PRESS HEADLINES:
Alistair Darling has been accused of concealing Treasury figures showing how deep Labour's planned spending cuts will be and where the axe would fall on public services, says the Telegraph. The Chancellor, under pressure from MPs, admitted that "assumptions" had been made about spending levels but refused to agree to demands from a member of the powerful Treasury Select Committee to release them.
Travellers faced fresh threats of transport chaos last night as Heathrow baggage handlers and Eurostar train drivers said they were ready to join British Airways cabin crew and strike in the lead-up to Christmas. British drivers at Eurostar said they would go on strike on Friday and Saturday after talks with management over pay broke down. Aslef, one of the unions involved, said it expected "some inconvenience" for passengers, though the operator said it expected to run a full service using French and Belgian drivers, writes the FT.
The Government is investigating a tax loophole that has allowed the North Sea oil industry to avoid paying hundreds of millions of pounds in national insurance contributions, the Times has learnt. The scheme, which has been exploited for years by scores of companies, including the FTSE 100 oil services group Petrofac, is depriving the Treasury of as much as £70 million a year, according to estimates from one of the world's biggest accountancy firms.
Bank of America named Brian Moynihan to be its next chief executive late on Wednesday, keeping the job within the company and disappointing institutional shareholders who have been agitating for a change in leadership at the Charlotte, North Carolina bank, reports the FT.
Standard & Poor's has become the second rating agency to downgrade Greek sovereign debt to near junk levels of BBB+, issuing a withering verdict on Spartan plans unveiled this week by premier George Papandreou, according to the Telegraph.
The power struggle at Mitchells & Butlers ratcheted up a notch yesterday when the dissident shareholder Joe Lewis demanded the appointment of four new directors and the immediate removal of the pub group's outgoing chairman, says the Independent.
Investors in Cattles demanded the liquidation of the embattled sub-prime lender and the resignation of its board at a highly fraught general meeting. The chaotic gathering, originally convened to discuss the financial future of the company, had to be adjourned twice while the board took legal advice on how to respond to shareholders, writes the Telegraph.
The Miami Herald has taken a surprise step in its attempt to combat diving circulation numbers and boost online earnings, by asking its readers for handouts, according to the Independent.
Any move to impose green taxes on aviation at the Copenhagen climate change talks this week could kill the industry, according to Sir Richard Branson, reports the Telegraph.
