Market Report: Credit Suisse tips Regus for big things

You don’t have to be a jeans-and-jacket venture capitalist to make a buck out of the recent boom in start-ups – at least not according to Credit Suisse.

The investment bank tipped Regus for big things yesterday, arguing that the office space provider is set for sustained “double digit revenue growth” and big cash returns. The boom in small and medium-sized businesses across the US and UK has led to a surge in demand for serviced offices and Credit Suisse think Regus, up 16.5p at 231.6p, is well placed for that.

The FTSE 100 continued to tease the record books, reaching an intraday high of 6,921.32 – just shy of the 6,950.6 record. But the blue-chip index ended the day practically flat, off 0.05 points at 6,898.08. Connor Campbell, an analyst with Spreadex, said: “The doubts over the likelihood of a Greek solution were felt more in the UK than on the continent and all-day declines by Brent crude continued to cause issues.”

Shopping centre owners Intu, down 12.3p at 364.1p, and Hammerson, dropping 18p to 665.5p, were among the worst performers. Economic indicators suggest retail sales are set to rise but Barclays warned retail landlords are unlikely to enjoy much benefit.

Microchip-maker Arm Holdings rose 27p to 1,099p as UBS said a “high end smart-phone renaissance” will benefit the company.

The war of words between troubled Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk and the rebel shareholder pushing for a new refinancing plan continues. Petropavlovsk warned there is a “very high risk” of the company going under if the current plan is rejected. Sapinda, the German investment vehicle pushing for a more favourable deal, called for Petropavlovsk to postpone the vote on the issue, giving shareholders more time to consider alternatives. Petropavlovsk slipped 0.5p to 16p.

Production software provider Zoo Digital jumped 1.12p to 9.5p on AIM as it announced a deal to provide subtitling and captioning to BBC Worldwide, the Beeb’s commercial arm. It came despite a warning that second half revenues are set to be lower than the first six months of the year, due to seasonality and “disruption within a major customer”.