RAMSEY CROOKALL

5th  October 2011

Afternoon Report

The FTSE 100 is up, extending gains. The focus now will be on US ADP data released before the US market open. Consensus expectations are for a modest decline from August to September, to +75,000 new private-sector jobs, from +91,000.

Commodities stocks are mostly higher, including a 3.55% gain for oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC and a 3.2% rise for rival BP PLC as crude-oil futures strengthened. Sainsbury rose after accelerating sales in the second quarter. Despite many expecting the supermarket to report a weaker second quarter than the first, when sunny weather and the UK royal wedding gave a boost to takings, sales by 7.8% in the second quarter, surpassing the 7.3% growth rate seen in the first three months of the year. Supermarket peer Tesco is up 1.0%, after its 1H results prove to be a mixed bag.

In other company news, trendy fashion retailer SuperGroup saw its share price plummet over a quarter after revealing a major problem at its new Barnwood warehouse in Gloucestershire, which it estimates will cut profits by £6-9m this year.

House builders are among the top performing stocks, with shares in Taylor Wimpey rising 7.0% and Barratt Developments PLC rising 8.1%.

THE FTSE 100 at 12:00                        Up         117         @         5061

THE DOW JONES closed                         Up         153         @         10808              NASDAQ COMP closed                           Up         68         @         2404               Commodities Spot Gold $/Oz           $1605               Down                   1.16 % Brent Crude Oil          $101.01             Down                   0.11 %

September Delivery    change Rates

GBP – USD           1.5477 GBP - EURO         1.1585