News round up: HSBC, Sainsbury, Strike, Rank Group, Aviva and the Bank of England.

Buy recommendations for HSBC Holdings plc (LON:HSBA) and J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) were reiterated following the announcement of their first quarter of 2012 results.

The Telegraph's Questor reiterated its buy recommendation for Britain's third-largest supermarket chain, J Sainsbury, saying that the decision to slow its rate of store opening looks good for investors.

"First tipped at 297.6p on November 10 last year, and with the renewed focus on shareholder returns following the reining back of expansion plans and the support offered by the current yields, Questor remains confident with a buy rating."

Nomura has reiterated its buy recommendation and 650p target for global banking giant HSBC, saying that consensus forecasts may increase slightly following the firm's first-quarter results.

"The HSBC Q1 figures are unlikely to change perceptions of the group materially, in our view. On the plus side, full-year consensus expectations are likely to nudge upwards and there are real signs of cost control, there was good growth in profits and revenues in the Asian businesses," the broker said in a research report.

Strike

Tens of thousands of public sector workers are due to go on strike and march the streets on Thursday as they escalate their bitter dispute over pensions, pay and jobs. Up to 400,000 workers including off-duty police officers, immigration staff and lecturers are set be involved in a wave of demonstrations throughout the country.

Civil servants, health workers, Ministry of Defence staff, and members of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary will also be among those joining strikes and other forms of protest. Picket lines will be mounted outside jobcentres, courts, at airports including Heathrow, Parliament and other Government buildings across Britain, The Telegraph says.

Rank Group

Rank Group is poised to agree the acquisition of Gala Casinos for about £200m — only six weeks after previous talks fell apart with each side blaming the other. The Times understands that, despite the acrimonious breakdown of the discussions, Rank and Gala Coral Group quickly returned to the negotiating table. Analysts said there had been two main sticking points first time around — Gala Casinos’ pension liability and property-related issues over casinos no longer owned by Gala.

Solutions to both appear to have been agreed. The purchase, which is unlikely to be announced by Rank alongside a scheduled trading update today, would add Gala’s 24 casinos to its existing estate of 35 clubs, allowing it to leapfrog Genting UK to become Britain’s biggest casino operator.

Aviva

Andrew Moss missed out on bonuses worth £2.4m after his unceremonious exit as Aviva’s chief executive, it emerged last night. Mr Moss, who resigned from the insurer with a payout worth £1.5m, was denied deferred shares from two bonus schemes by Aviva’s remuneration committee. As a result of his resignation, Mr Moss was deemed by the committee not to be a “good leaver” and it exercised its right to withhold the share payments. The committee’s decision appeared last night to have headed off an investor revolt over the terms of Mr Moss’s departure, The Times reports.

Bank of England

The Bank of England is expected to call time on the latest round of quantitative easing on Thursday following signs that inflation is proving more "sticky" than expected. The second round of QE has been completed and on Thursday the Bank has to decide whether to extend it again or to leave the total £325bn program unchanged. Most economists reckon the Bank will keep its powder dry after inflation surprisingly rose in March to 3.5%, making it less likely that the consumer price index will drop back to the 2% target this year.

Barclays Capital warned that inflation would prove "sticky" and that "the recent failure of inflation to fall as much as expected is indicative of a deep-seated persistence". The bank expects inflation to remain above 2% until the third quarter of 2014 and to remain above 3% through this year. It has pencilled in a first rate rise of half a point in the third quarter of 2013, according to The Telegraph.