Carnival kicks off bookings bonanza

IT WAS full steam ahead for

Shrugging off recent adverse publicity about standards on the QM2 - its new £550m, 150,000-tonne liner which which was officially launched by the Queen in January - it sailed 63p higher to an all-time high of 2572p.

Bookings during January were a whopping 59% higher than a year ago when Joe Public preferred to remain on dry land because of worries about the war in Iraq. Carnival now expects that first quarter 2004 net revenue yields will increase 3% to 4%.

Broker Merrill Lynch maintained its bullish stance and lifted its target price to £28 from £25.

The Footsie survived early choppy seas and an 18-point deficit to close 10.7 points higher at 4,507.5. The market initially gave a lukewarm response to annual results from banking giant HBOS (off 7p to 757p) while dealers remained highly cautious about Abbey National (5p off at 550p) ahead of its figures today.

Bears continued to roar that Abbey's Scottish Mutual life insurance business has a few skeletons in its cupboard.

Wall Street rallied 49 points following positive trading statements from retailers Home Depot and Tiffany. Fed chairman Alan Greenspan told the House Budget Committee that the US economy is getting stronger.

Sterling dropped to $1.8726, while the euro eased to $1.2492 and 66.7p.

Buying on consideration of their defensive qualities helped Imperial Tobacco rise 33p to 1139p, BAT 19p to 820p and Gallaher 14p to 850p.

Yell, the international directories group, gained 7 1/4p to 337 1/4p. Merrill Lynch advised clients to buy and lifted its target price to 370p from 350p. Bullish noises from Deutsche Bank about prospects for its educational business left Financial Times owner Pearson 12 1/2p better at 616 1/2p.

News that its Premier Custodial subsidiary has been nominated by HM Prison Service as preferred supplier of prison escort and custody services for London and the South East left Serco 13 1/2p up at 211p. The seven-year contract is worth £300m-plus.

Buoyed by a 11% dividend hike and a major new five-year contract with Argos in Scotland, transport group TDG accelerated 17p to 227 1/2p.

Tiger Tiger bar and nightclubs group Urbium boogied 30p higher to 542 1/2p on good annual results. Pretax profits came in at £9.35m and shareholders receive a maiden dividend of 10p. The current year has started well and six new sites should open this year, of which at least three should be in the City of London, plus a Tiger Tiger unit in Aberdeen.

Gaming International raced 12p ahead to 48 1/2p following a bid approach from its management. A 15% leap in annual profits and a 26% dividend hike helped Irish bookmaker Paddy Power jump 37p to 544p. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein raised its target price to 616p from 564p.

Electronics equipment supplier XP Power sparked 20 1/2p higher to 306p. In a 15-page strong buy note entitled 'A big turn on', broker Investec says XP is significantly undervalued compared with its US peers. It believes 500p is a realistic target.

Better-than-expected preliminary results and advanced discussions with a number of potential partners to accelerate the commercialisation of its drugs pipeline helped XTL Biopharm improve 1p to 26 1/2p.

In the absence of the rumoured licensing deal, Bioprogress lost 24 1/2p to 124p on hefty turnover of 8.9m. Market-makers shook the tree in the hope that some nervous punters would fall out. Many did and could soon be kicking themselves.

Aim-listed financial public relations firm Hansard held at 15 3/4p. David Newton has bought a further 400,000 shares and now owns 13%.

Costume jewellery seller Cabouchon lost 1 3/4p to 5p after the board said it knew of no reason for the recent significant rise in the share price, from 1 3/4p.

THERE is a growing belief in the City that Griffin Mining's Caijiaying zinc mine just north of the Chinese capital Beijing could turn into a world class mine. Top broker Merrill Lynch obviously thinks so because rumours suggest it picked up a stake of around 5% - at 25p - in the recent £4.2m placing. Griffin, 1/4p up at 27 1/4p, wanted the cash to fund further exploration around the mine, which should be in full production next year.