Financial News

LONDON (ShareCast) - Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) is losing share in three of its four main European markets according to UBS (Virt-X: UBSN.VX - news) , which has downgraded its rating of the mobile phone giant.

The Swiss bank believes the stock is a short-term sell and has switched its medium-term recommendation to "neutral" from "buy" while cutting its price target from 150p to 115p.

The bank believes that reversing the loss of market share will either require price cuts or increased promotional expenditure, with the latter flying in the face of management's stated aim of reducing the cost base.

US bank Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS - news) remains "overweight" in Vodafone shares but has trimmed its price target from 175p to 170p ahead of the company's first quarter interim statement on 24 July.

Miners are helping to offset the depressing impact on the index of Vodafone falling, helped by a bullish review by UBS.

The broker thinks mining stocks will start to make up some of the ground lost in the second quarter. Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) is its preferred stock in the sector but it also likes Vedanta.

FTSE 100 - Risers Fresnillo (LSE: FRES.L - news) (FRES) 508.00p +7.97% Lonmin (LSE: LMI.L - news) (LMI) 1,057.00p +7.31% Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ.L - news) (KAZ) 627.50p +6.18% Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) (ANTO) 619.00p +5.45% Xstrata (XTA) 610.60p +4.73% Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 714.50p +4.31% Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS.L - news) (RRS) 3,756.00p +4.22% Rio Tinto (RIO) 1,992.50p +3.67%

FTSE 100 - Fallers Vodafone Group (VOD) 112.10p -2.52% Imperial Tobacco Group (LSE: IMT.L - news) (IMT) 1,598.00p -1.36% Diageo (LSE: DGE.L - news) (DGE) 866.50p -1.31% Associated British Foods (LSE: ABF.L - news) (ABF) 759.50p -1.17% British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS.L - news) (BATS) 1,708.00p -0.99% Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) (TSCO) 359.30p -0.99% Next (NXT) 1,595.00p -0.93% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 439.00p -0.73%