RAMSEY CROOKALL

8th  September

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed 0.4% higher with investors hopeful that fresh insight into the management of the US economy will come as President Obama addresses Congress and Fed chief Ben Bernanke speaks in Minneapolis this evening.

The BoE gave no surprise with leaving interest rates unchanged  at 0.5% as expected, and the descion had little impact on the markets. The ECB also  left its benchmark interest rates unchanged at 1.5 percent as expected. Any hopes for bullish market comments from Trichet were quickly evaporated as the ECB president highlighted the downside threats to the Euro region have worsened.

Supermarket chain Morrison’s share price has risen after its focus on value – and longer opening hours – helped it post sales and profits ahead of expectations in the half year to 31 July. Pre-tax profits rose to £449m from £412m the previous year. Turnover climbed to £8.7bn from £8.1bn, while like-for-like sales rose by 2.2%.

Fund manager Schroders' share price took a knock after Deutsche Bank downgraded it from buy to sell. The target price was raised to 1,900p, up from 1,477p.

Property company British Land has closed and drawn funds on a $480m US private placement bond issue, the largest US private placement transaction by a UK Real Estate Investment Trust. The placement, originally launched at $200m, was three times oversubscribed, prompting the company to increase the size of the issue.

THE FTSE 100 closed                             Up             21       @     5340

THE DOW JONES at 16:40                          Up             39       @      11454  

NASDAQ COM at 16:40                             Up             14       @      2563               Commodities Spot Gold $/Oz           $1855 Brent Crude Oil          $116.40 September Delivery    Exchange Rates GBP – USD            1.6052 GBP - EURO         1.1481