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Next has found a formula for fashion's hotly contested middle ground that appears to be working in straitened times. It has also sensibly scaled back on its store expansion programme. However, at £11.20, or less than eight times current-year earnings, that makes Next a relative safe haven in retail, rather than a share to chase, says the Times.

The Telegraph says do not expect Next's sales performance to improve any time soon. The company warned yesterday that there are another 18 months of misery ahead. However if Mr Wolfson has read the market right - and he has form on this front - then the chain should emerge in 2010 as a stronger, fitter entity, it adds.

Sports Direct is trying to expand in China, which is good on the face of things, and has closed stores in the UK, but the benefits of these exercises are unlikely to feed through to an improvement in the share price, at least not yet. While Mr Ashley may not have faced chants of "sack the board" yesterday, shares, unlike football loyalties can be easily disposed of. Investors should be heading for the turnstiles. Sell, says the Independent.

Old Mutual trades on a hefty discount and is unlikely to stay there. Experts like insurance entrepreneur Clive Cowdery have suggested the bottom of the market could be close for financial institutions. After a 45pc decline in the share price since last December, the time to buy in could be fast approaching. The Pandora's box that is the US Life business needs to be closed first though. Avoid for now, says the Telegraph.

Anite chief executive, Steve Rowley, concedes that the group's acquisition history is chequered, but that now he and his team are "amazingly prudent". Buy, says the Independent.

It is hardly in Jonathan Kaye's interests to talk up prospects, given that he and his family, who hold almost 70 per cent of Prezzo's shares, are trying to raise debt funding to take the company private. Such a bid would undoubtedly be at a premium to the current 34½p share price and a deal is likely to be struck, but on fundamentals there is little to tempt new investors. Avoid, recommends the Times.

Even if ITV's board sits tight for another year, the market is likely to begin pricing in advertising market recovery in 2009. Buy, recommends the Telegraph.

There is no getting away from the fact that Modern Water is a speculative punt and investors certainly should not bet their mortgage on the company, but, with the group set to start making money, now would be a good time to get in. Buy, writes the Independent.

With growth slower to come through and the shares, at 119p, offering a negligible dividend, there is little short-term attraction in Just Retirement, says the Times.

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