News

The UK still accounts for nearly two thirds of Tesco's sales and like-for-like sales growth of 3.5% was at the bottom end of analysts' expectations.

The easing of year-on-year comparisons will provide a degree of relief. However, shares in Tesco, trading at 14 times current-year earnings, will have trouble making headway until its market-beating credentials have been restored. No more than a hold says the Times.

The acquisition by SABMiller of Vladpivo, the Russian brewer, for a sum rumoured to be less than $100m is small beer compared with the $46bn bid that InBev is said to be preparing for Anheuser-Busch, but it is strategicially important. Even so, the deal cannot prevent SAB issuing a gloomy first-quarter trading update next month. Potential investors should wait until the update is out of the way and the benefits of the MillerCoors venture become clearer. Buy on weakness says the Times.

With two years of grim news expected from the housing market, no one is prepared to catch the falling knife that is housebuilding share prices and investors should steer well clear of the sector says the Telegraph.

IT services provider Redstone is one of two shortlisted bidders for schools IT projects in Salford and Birmingham, the latter worth £150m. Other tenders are in train for subsequent years. At ten times current-year earnings, the shares are worth tucking away says the Times.

Investors have done well out of Oxford Instruments this year. Shares in the producer of high-tech tools were trading at 166p on 22 January and have risen consistently since then. However, most investors will probably prefer to wait for further evidence that the five-year plan to double revenue is working and that the stock is not stymied. Hold says the Independent.

Russia-based miner Peter Hambro's valuation lags behind that of its competitors, such as Goldcorp, despite planning to increase production to a million ounces by 2011. Buy says the Independent.

Media Square has managed to get just about everything wrong in recent years. It will be a long road back and it will be made only more difficult by advertising budgets being slashed by companies worried about declining consumer confidence. Media Square is improving, but investors should certainly wait a while longer. Hold says the Independent.
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