Unilever (ULVR) - Buy

A recent US research note from Goldman Sachs drew attention to a high-yield trap. That is, getting stuck in high-yield stocks that were bought for defensive attributes as substitute for bonds. According to the piece by Christian Mueller-Glissman, the attractiveness of high yields is in danger and clients should look to re-leverage stocks. With interest rates more likely to rise than go down, investors are looking for reasons, other than dividends, to invest. The article goes on to cite the Anglo-Dutch company, Unilever, as one of its top European picks.

read the full story here:

http://www.shareworld.co/index.php/share-spotlight/september-26-2013/

Communisis (CMS) - Buy

According to IBM, ‘‘we’re now creating 2.5 quintillion bytes daily ~ so much that 90 per cent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.’’ Sifting through data to find the useful stuff is a skill being employed by a lot of marketing companies. One such firm that employs data analysis within its arsenal and turns it into useful, understandable marketing material is Leeds based Communisis. It describes itself as a channeller of “customer communication disciplines to design, produce and deploy any communication campaign from top to bottom.”

http://www.shareworld.co/index.php/share-spotlight/september-12-2013/

Faroe Petroleum (FPM) - Buy

Faroe Petroleum is, as the name suggests, focused on exploration for, appraisal and the production of oil and gas. It has built a portfolio, through licence applications and acquisitions of assets across the Atlantic Margin, the UK and Norwegian North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea and offshore Iceland. It is a well-established firm, based in Aberdeen, with additional offices in Stavander, London and Torshavn. The company has experience of partnering with majors including Statoil, Centrica, BP. E.ON Ruhrgas, GDF. Repsol, RWE Dea, DONG Energy and Wintershall.


http://www.shareworld.co/index.php/share-spotlight/august-29-2013/

Genel Energy (GENL) - Buy

Following his ignominious exit form BP, Tony Heywood teamed up with a scion of the Rothschild family, a former Goldman Sachs deal-maker and two Turkish tycoons to look for oil in the politically sensitive region of Kurdistan. In addition, Genel Energy is looking for oil in Somalia, Morocco, Cote D’Ivoire and Malta, but for now it is Kurdistan which provides the impetus. Back in January, Genel became the first company to successfully export oil directly from the region, and according to UBS there has been “no apparent payment, legal or political issues.”

read the full story here:

http://www.shareworld.co/index.php/share-spotlight/july-25-2013/

Sirius Minerals (SXX) - Buy

Potash is used to enhance crop yields in sulphur-deficient areas. With a rising need for increased food production as the global population heads towards seven billion people, the demand for potash and its derivatives is set to rise. Sirius Minerals is one of the companies looking to capitalise on this with a high quality grade called Sulphate of Potash (SOP) from its York Potash project. SOP is a combination of potassium with a sulphate and enhances the yield and quantity of vegetables, nuts, fruit and green leafy plants. Where the traditional Muriate of Potassium (MOP) can reduce the quality of crops over time, due to a build-up of chloride, SOP is said to improve crop mass, water content, taste and colour in addition to extending shelf life.

read the full story here:

http://www.shareworld.co/index.php/share-spotlight/july-04-2013/

SCAPA (SCPA) - Buy

Scapa does tapes. Sticky tapes. But it prefers to call them ‘Bonding Products and Adhesive Solutions.’ In addition to more familiar tapes like masking, gaffer, splicing, double-sided, PVC and cloth, it specialises in healthcare, electronics and other industrial applications, trading across three main geographic areas: Europe, North America and Asia. Its products are used as adhesives in and on such diverse things as people, cars, caravans, smartphones, tablets and iPhones, ships, hockey sticks, wind farms and white goods.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/june-06-2013/

Speedyhire (SDY) - Buy

Long-term investors in tool rental company, Speedyhire PLC saw the price slump in 2007 when it dropped from its high of around 350p to 10p two years later. The slowdown in the UK construction industry was the cause and by 2009 the price dipped under 20p. It has been a slow recovery but the firm now seems to be well on the way to knocking itself back into shape. In a cost-cutting ‘self-help’ styled programme it has shut smaller outlets to give more attention to its larger superstores and multi-service centres, and reduced the head-count.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/may-23-2013/

Iofina (IOF) - Buy

Although it appears in the Oil & Gas sector, Iofina is more of an oil-and-gas-services-speciality-chemicals-producer. It has small interests in water and natural gas assets but iodine production is the core of its business. It removes the element from the salty waste water that is a by-product of shale oil and gas production.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/may-09-2013/

Oxford Catalysts Group (OCG) - Buy

Oxford Catalysts Group is a leading technology innovator for clean synthetic fuel production and operates two subsidiaries: Oxford Catalysts and Velocys Inc. The firm’s intellectual property and technology was born out of years of research at the University of Oxford, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Battelle Memorial Institute. 2004 marked the inauguration of Oxford Catalysts, evolving from Oxford’s Wolfson Catalysis Centre led by cofounder Professor Malcolm Green, a renowned inorganic chemist.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/april-25-2013/

Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) - Buy

Eurasian Natural Resources is one of the lesser known FTSE 100 stocks, sitting 96th in the FTSE league table. A

Kazakhstan-based mining company, dealing in ferroalloys, iron ore, aluminium and non-ferrous metals, ENRC also has business

in energy production, providing around 16 per cent of Kazakhstan’s electricity. The business stretches across the globe to

Brazil and Africa, taking in Russia and China.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/april-11-2013/

IQE (IQE) - Buy

IQE is a supplier of materials used in smartphones, among other devices. It develops, makes and sells the wafers that microchips sit in. There are around a dozen companies worldwide that manufacture and distribute semiconductors to system providers like Apple and Samsung. Known as the epitaxy process, the first stage is one of the most critical and demanding steps in the manufacturing chain. IQE, following the recent acquisition of Kopin Wireless, has around 60 per cent of the distribution market share. IQE produces wafers using Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), which has some superior properties to silicon, which is still widely used. Using GaAs creates a range of electronic and optoelectronic properties and makes the wafers particularly suited to products which convert light and electricity back and forth such as in lasers, LEDs and detectors. Meanwhile, in the electronics domain, its compound wafers allow electrons to travel much more quickly than in silicon (up to ten times) enabling higher frequency, lower noise and more power-efficient systems.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/march-27-2013/

Aviva (AV.) - Buy

Aviva shares fell 13 per cent on the release of their full year figures on 7th March, knocking £1.4bn off the value of the company, the biggest sell-off for the stock in almost four years. It has been a tricky year for the UK’s second biggest insurer, it embarked on a major restructuring program and also lost its chief executive, Andrew Moss. The shares are now trading just above the level they were when he left in May 2012.

Read the Full story on Shareworld.

Netcall (NET) - Buy

Netcall is a small-cap, Alternative Investment Market (AIM) listed firm in the software and computer services sector that has a history of more than 20 years and has been listed since 1996. Netcall offers businesses with ‘customer engagement software’ which helps them to manage clients more productively. Services include call handling, call-back, smart automation, workforce management and data unification and business process management. It has four main segments Intelligent Contact Handling, Workforce Optimisation, Enterprise Content Management and Business Process Management.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/february-28-2013/

Quindell Portfolio (QPP) - Buy

Quindell Portfolio is an IT company providing services to insurance firms that help them to reduce costs. It allows insurers

to outsource the day-to-day administration of motor claims, including organising lawyers for personal injury claims and

arranging replacement vehicles. It also organises medical experts to assess injuries through its Mobile Doctor unit. This is

a costly business for insurers and with personal injury claims spiralling, the government is looking to crackdown on

ambulance-chasing and whiplash cheats. This should benefit Quindell which prides itself on an ethical approach to claims.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/january-17-2013/

BG Group (BG.) - Buy

At the end of October BG Group suffered its biggest ever share price fall. As one of the UK’s most respected oil and gas explorers the warning on production numbers

caught investors off-guard and, at one point, knocked as much as one-fifth off the value of the shares. Shareholders and analysts were taken aback by the shock profit

warning, not least because the quarterly figures were released a day earlier than expected. Despite a 16 per cent rise in third-quarter profits to US$1.6bn, and a five

per cent increase in production, it was the outlook for 2013 that caused concern and the big sell-off.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/december-13-2012/

Telecom Plus (TEP) - Buy

Utility providers are coming under fire as the government tries to reign in the varied charging structures and tariffs.

According to the Telecom Plus chief executive, Andrew Lindsay, this will play into the hands of his company, which trades

under the name of Utility Warehouse. He sees the changes as spelling the end of low-priced introductory offers from the big

energy operators which compete with his product. As things stand, Telecom Plus has just 1.5 per cent of the UKs home phone,

mobiles, broadband, gas and electricity market, with around 438,000 customers.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/november-29-2012/

WANdisco (WAND) - Buy

There have only been three technology floatations in London this year. A far cry from the heady days of the tech boom a

decade ago. However, the three companies that have listed in 2012 have gone largely unnoticed. For starters they’re small,

and they’ve also chosen the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to make their debuts. The first to appear was Austrian

software company Incadea, which raised £17m in May. The second, WANdisco, came to the AIM market in June. Then Blur Group

raised £4m in October. Of the three, WANdisco has been the most successful. It is a small company worth around £90m. The

shares were originally placed at 180p and have more than doubled since the first day of trading. Management decided to list

on AIM in order to fund expansion of the company’s sales force, to open an office in China and potentially make some

acquisitions. The placing was significantly oversubscribed (by 300 per cent) and shareholders include big institutions like

Fidelity, Legal & General, Blackrock and M&G.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/november-15-2012/

Ricardo - Buy

Ricardo Plc, established originally in 1915 as Engine Patents Ltd by Sir Harry Ricardo, is today a leading multi-industry

engineering provider of technology, consulting services and product innovation. Notably, Ricardo developed and supplies the

renowned twin-turbo V8 engine used in the new McLaren MP4-12C supercar. In addition, Ricardo has collaborated with Xtrac Ltd

in the development and supply of transmissions to Formula One teams, including Lotus and HRT. Furthermore, Ricardo is

concerned with the development of intelligent transport systems and hybrid-electric systems. Currently Ricardo derives

business from defense, rail and clean energy sectors to complement motorsport and transportation order books.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/november-01-2012/

ETF Lean Hogs - Buy

The supply constraints on food are having wide-ranging effects. The limitations have been caused by drought in the US and Russia, coupled with extreme heat damage. Corn and soyabeans have been hit hard, which has had a knock-on effect on the prices of other foodstuffs. UK company Cranswick drew attention in its recent update to the effect of rising pig prices, pushed up by the cost of feed. There is also upward pressure from growing demand. In Europe, farmers have been cutting herds because of the rising costs and new welfare regulations, due to be introduced in January, on how sows should be housed.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/october-18-2012/

Syngenta - Buy

Syngenta has once again come onto the radar of investors on the back of surging grain prices, and the prospect of a marked fall-back in cost pressures in the last-quarter of 2012 and into 2013, which could offer some potential short-term gains for investors. The story is continuing to develop as high corn prices drive demand for Syngenta's seed care products. The latest update from the US Department of Agriculture confirms that the drought, which is hitting large parts of the US grain belt, has indeed reduced this year's corn harvest by some 13 per cent.

read the full story here:
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/share-spotlight/october-04-2012/