RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 26th September 2012

 Morning Report

The FTSE 100 trades down 1.4%, pushing further into the red. Banks and mining stocks are the standout losers.

The National Credit Union Administration has sued a U.S. subsidiary of Barclays over alleged misrepresentations in the sale of $555 million of mortgage-backed securities to two credit unions that failed during the financial crisis.

Anglo American plans to reduce coking coal output in the coming months as it reviews existing operations and projects in the face of weak prices and high costs, the miner's coking coal chief said Wednesday as he warned industry-wide cuts will continue to deepen.

First half profits from international home emergency business Homeserve will be higher than in the corresponding period of last year, and therefore higher than some broker estimates. Adjusted pre-tax profit for the six months ending September 30th is expected to be higher than the £23.5m achieved at the interim stage last year, principally due to the benefits of increasing ownership of Domeo from 49% to 100%. Broker Peel Hunt had forecast £20m. 

Waste management group Shanks said it now expects results for the year to March 31st 2013 to be slightly below the current range of expectations after market conditions in the UK and Dutch solid waste markets deteriorated significantly in the first half. Shanks said its organics, hazardous waste, and UK municipal businesses continued to perform robustly and in line with company expectations.

Performance across ICAP's voice and electronic businesses has remained more muted than anticipated at the time of the inter-dealer broker's annual general meeting in July. On the plus side, although activity in global markets has remained subdued in the last six months or so, there has been some improvement in trading volumes in September. As a result, group revenue in the six months ending September 30th is expected to be around 14% lower than the previous year.

Growth has slowed at pizza delivery firm Domino's Pizza. Like-for-like sales in the UK in the third quarter were up by 3.7%, versus 4.1% the year before and 5.7% in the first six months of the financial year.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00          Down            63       @      5796 THE DOW JONES            closed           Down            101      @     13457 THE NASDAQ               closed            Down            43       @      3117

Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @       10:00                     1.6183 GBP - EURO     @       10:00                     1.2576