■ Supermarket chain Morrisons reported a 4.3 per cent rise in like-for-like sales and left its expectations for the current year unchanged.
■ Oil company BG has had more good news in Brazil where well tests on the Iracema appraisal well in the Tupi area, Santos Basin, reported record productivity ().
■ Bike and car parts chain Halfords has upped the interim divided by a fifth after increasing first-half profit by 24 per cent, and remains confident that business over the next six months will beat the previous year ().
■ Gas and electricity pipeline grid operator National Grid upped its interim dividend after posting a 16 per cent rise in pre-tax profits.
■ Water firm Pennon Group reported a 13 per cent rise in half-year pre-tax profit and said its businesses are 'well positioned in the current economic slowdown.'
■ Payment services group Paypoint reported a 10 per cent drop in half-year pre-tax profit but said it was confident about its growth prospects.
■ Hydraulic platform specialist Lavendon wants to raise almost £81m from a placing and open offer at 70p a share after warning that full-year results could be at the bottom end of expectations.
Continues below...
■ Chinese refinery firm Haike has plunged by a fifth to a seven-month low on news it traded at a loss throughout the third quarter, leaving it loss-making for the year so far.
■ Outsourced workplaces provider Regus reported a 9.5 per cent drop in revenues and said it remains cautious in its outlook for 2010.
■ Asia focused oil and gas company Salamander Energy said daily production averaged 15,700 boepd during the third quarter, adding that its 2010 exploration programme will be the busiest in the group's history.
■ Oil and gas explorer and producer Dana Petroleum has been ramping up production recently with output levels exceeding 42,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with 38,200 over the year to date.
■ Premier Oil expects production to average up to 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the full-year, although that's less than the 46,000 boepd predicted in August.
■ Brewer SABMiller reported a 1 per cent fall in lager volumes over the six months to September 30 as growth in Africa and Asia was offset by weakness in more developed markets.
■ Building and civil engineering contractor Kier has announced the appointment of Paul Sheffield to succeed John Dodds as chief executive.
■ Anglo-Swiss drug giant AstraZeneca has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Brilinta blood cot prevention treatment.
■ Advertising firm Aegis reiterated its guidance for the full year as it reported a drop in organic revenue for the first nine months of the year.
■ Military decoy specialist Chemring reported a strong order book and said the outlook for 2010 remains in-line with expectations.
■ Profit fell at South African bank Investec during the first half, but was "comfortably" ahead of the second half of last year as assets under management rose almost 29 per cent.
■ Materials company Morgan Crucible said that demand for its products has stabilised after a soft summer and expects its performance over the second half of the year to be in-line with expectations.
■ Melrose said current trading is marginally ahead of management expectations for 2009 as the engineering conglomerate benefited from being exposed to different product sectors and geographical areas.
■ Mobile computer software firm Psion said it expects to report a small adjusted profit before tax for the full year, broadly in-line with market expectations.
■ Shares in oil and gas services group Lamprell fell after it said a reduction in a payment from one of its customers will have an adverse impact on its results for the year.
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 (19 NOV 2009):
Full round-up of newspaper share tips (sourced from Sharecast)
PRESS HEADLINES:
ITN will reveal its first-ever loss on Thursday as the new chief executive outlines austerity measures aimed at putting the organisation back into the black. John Hardie, who came into the job in June, will tell his 800 journalists and commercial staff that the organisation lost "a significant amount" in the first half of the year. People who have seen the accounts said the figure ran into low single-digit millions of pounds, says the FT.
Legislation outlined by the Queen was slammed as "mad" and "spurious" by one boss and greeted with dismay in the City where company executives, traders and lawyers said the proposals would be hard to implement. Tim Linacre, chief executive of Panmure Gordon, told the Reuters Global Finance Summit yesterday: "The fiscal regime for wealth creators in the UK is looking particularly shoddy - that does worry people and will be damaging," reports the Telegraph.
Legal & General, the life and pensions group, has identified its preferred candidate to become chairman and hopes to make an appointment within days. It is about a year since Sir Rob Margetts said he wanted to retire after almost 10 years in the job. The hunt for a replacement has not been quick or easy, writes the FT.
Archie Norman, the former chief executive of Asda who on Wednesday emerged as ITV's new chairman, considered making a bid for the commercial broadcaster about 18 months ago. Norman looked at ITV as a potential investment through Aurigo Management Partners, his investment vehicle. "Way back there was a fleeting moment of interest but it never progressed," he told the Telegraph.
Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible "global economic collapse" over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction, according to the Telegraph.
Lloyds Banking Group will put 600 branches and its Cheltenham & Gloucester and TSB brands up for sale after the European Commission gave its approval to its state-aid settlement, says the Times.
JPMorgan will on Thursday unveil a £1bn deal to buy Cazenove, the UK broker with which it has had a joint venture for the past five years. The bank is to pay about 535p a share in a deal in which David Mayhew, widely recognised as one of the City's best-connected corporate advisers, will retain the title of chairman of the Cazenove brand, reports the FT.
Barack Obama has warned that the US economy could head into a "double-dip recession" unless urgent steps were taken to rein back America's mounting levels of public debt, writes the Times.
Marks & Spencer cheered investors by hiring Marc Bolland, the chief executive of Morrisons, to take over from Sir Stuart Rose, delivering the type of heavyweight appointment that the City had been clamouring for, according to the Independent.
The billionaire Tchenguiz brothers have been ordered to pay their brother-in-law an additional £100,000 towards his legal costs after failing to meet a previous court order, says the Times.
