Distributor Electrocomponents said yesterday that sales had slowed markedly since its first-half results in early November.

Bunzl sources and distributes a range of products for the cleaning, catering, retail and food processing industries.

Petrofac is the most solid in the oil services sector and those looking for relative value should buy, but the market will punish the whole sector until the oil price stabilises. Hold says the Independent.

Wood Group is well run and solid but investors hate volatility, even in the best of markets. The global slowdown and unpredictable nature of oil prices means that backing Wood today is an uncertain science. The stock has lost more than half its value in a year and while its chief executive, Allister Langlands, points out that its trading performance is in fact far stronger, that will be no consolation to shareholders who have lost out. Cautious hold, writes the Independent.

Bus and train group Go-Ahead, which issued a trading update yesterday, has yet to feel any material impact of the downturn. It argues that as people turn away from their cars, it will benefit, especially with inflation-busting fare increases to come in January.

While some of AB Foods' more discretionary products may get hit in the recession, its focus on the sugar market, and on Primark, which is leaving all in its wake, should more than compensate for the dodgier parts of the company's portfolio.

Brokers believe the newly merged BTG (with Protherics) has potential. The firm wants to become a speciality group, selling drugs to hospitals rather than GPs as marketing and distribution is cheaper.

Distributor Premier Farnell has few peers, and the support services index it belongs to is too broad to provide a relevant price or share performance comparison.

Rio Tinto's main problem is debt, so the commitment to slash its $40bn (£27bn) of borrowings by around one quarter before the end of 2010 has to be good news.

Van and car renter Northgate has "limited headroom" on its covenants and if residual values fall much lower, there is a still a danger of breach says its house broker UBS.

Whitbread, the owners of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, continues to attract hard-pressed customers into its coffee shops and budget hotels, despite the tanking consumer economy.

Waste management is not immune to economic downturns - if companies trade less, they produce less rubbish. But Shanks is at the cutting edge of this sector, so it should continue to grow over the next two years.

Michael Page said yesterday that it is cutting staff levels to 5,100 to help to mitigate "significantly reducing activity levels and [a] shortening [of] the group's earnings visibility," but would not be asked what else it is doing to mitigate this dreadful market. Sell, says the Independent.

After yesterday's strong rally Tesco trades at just under 12 times expected earnings for 2008-09, while its yield is back below 4%. That cuts the unjustified discount to Sainsbury's that had opened recently and is probably about right for now says the Times.

Aberdeen is a well-run asset manager and its tendency for conservatism in these dreadful markets should not be overlooked.

A trading statement from security group G4S on 10 November was upbeat. Chief executive Nick Buckles said underlying growth for the first nine months of 2008 was 10.3% and he was very confident about the future.

The IT sector is likely to struggle in a downturn, so you would expect those that service it, like software giant Logica, to struggle too.