RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 3rd July 2012 Morning Report

The FTSE 100 up 0.2% at 5653, maintaining gains following a couple of UK data releases. Lending to households rose slightly in May, while lending to businesses fell. The construction industry PMI, meanwhile, fell to 48.2 in June from 54.4 in May; a reading below 50 shows contraction, so this print will likely reinforce expectations that the BOE is set to announce further QE on Thursday. Miners are the biggest risers in London Tuesday morning. Barclays is 2.0% higher, reversing earlier losses, following the resignation of CEO Bob Diamond.

Mining stocks were tracking metals prices higher early on. Vedanta, Rio Tinto, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, ENRC and BHP Billiton were all making gains in spite of Deutsche Bank cutting target prices across the sector.

FTSE 250 resource group Talvivaara Mining was bucking the trend after saying that it is unlikely to hit its nickel production targets this year as a result of flooding, scheduled maintenance and a fatality-related stoppage during its second quarter. Shares dropped 15%. House builder Persimmon edged higher after saying it had a good first half of the year with sales rates and prices running ahead of the corresponding period of 2011.

Oil explorer Salamander Energy fell after saying that test results at its dig in the Gulf of Thailand are "conclusive", with analysis showing that water is present in the tested section; in other words the Far East-1 well cannot be used for production. Elsewhere, AIM-listed TV group Motive Television surged 16% after taking full control of its intellectual property rights by buying out the minority shareholder in its Spanish subsidiary.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00     Up       13         @      5,653 THE DOW JONES            closed       Down     8          @      12871 THE NASDAQ               closed       Up       16        @      2951 Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @      10:00             1.5691 GBP - EURO      @      10:00             1.2951