Sunday share tips: Marks & Spencer, National Grid, Assura

Marks & Spencer shares were given a 'hold' rating by Questor in the Sunday Telegraph. Last week, recently promoted boss Steve Rowe began to cut the senior management cloth to suit his new regime, though we will not know his true plans until final results are posted on 25 May. Rowe needs time to sort things out, but he is lucky to have a highly cash generative business that can keep shareholders relatively happy and maintain dividends.

However, departed Dutchman Marc Bolland was unable to deliver the revenue turnaround that investors hoped. On the positive side, the food business has been a consistent success, outshining its rivals in the supermarket sector. But the clothing business, mainly womenswear, has been a weak link for too long, even though an improved supply chain has begun to help margins move in the right direction. But Rowe needs to lift this area if he is to put some oomph back into shares that have lost a quarter of value in the last year.

Sell National Grid shares, investors were told by the Sunday Times' Inside the City column. The gas and power transmission network operator has enjoyed an extended stint as an investor favourite, throwing off dividend cash partly thanks to the benign, low interest rates creating ideal conditions for growth. Results this week are likely to show ever bigger profits. The shares have sparked up almost two thirds over five years and now change hands for more than a third more than its regulated asset base, more than other highly regulated markets.

Meanwhile, regulation has dimmed the lights of energy companies - and Ofgem may be about to do the same to National Grid, according to analysts at Macquarie. As the company looks to sell its £12bn gas distribution arm, it has been suggested that the regulator, in recognition of the helpful conditions use the sale cash to cut its rates, which are added onto household bills, rather than return them all to shareholders as is currently hoped.

Shares in Assura are worth buying, said Midas in the Mail on Sunday, as the doctor's surgery property developer offers potential solid income growth for the long-term. While general practitioners have historically worked out of converted residential homes, the modern NHS requires extra services from a GP's surgery such as nursing, physiotherapy and a pharmacy. Rents from GPs are government-backed, with £1bn also committed to help develop new surgeries.

Assura's 301 surgeries are worth more than £1bn, with a £135m pipeline of development and extension opportunities expected to have increased when results are unveiled this week. Profits are forecast to jump more than three quarters, with another rise of approaching 50% pencilled in for next year. Management raised £300m in a placing last year to help with development and allow acquisitions.

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