RAMSEY CROOKALL

8th  September

Afternoon Report

The FTSE 100 is up 0.5%, paring gains as the Bank of England leaves interest rates at 0.5% and keeps its bond-purchase program at GBP200 billion. The rationale behind the bank's decision will be unveiled in two weeks, when the minutes are released. The index retains its upward movement, with banks among the best performers. RBS up 5.2%, Lloyds Banking Group up 4.2% and Barclays up 2.7%. Still to come, the ECB rate announcement and US initial jobless claims. US jobless claims are expected to remain above the 400,000 level at 409,000, unchanged from last week's number.

Supermarket chain Morrisons’ focus on value 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%.

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.

Home Retail is the retailer hogging the limelight, rising nearly 10% even after it saw like-for-like (LFL) sales in the former dive 8.6% from a year earlier in the 13 weeks to 27 August, while the latter saw LFL sales fall 3.1% year-on-year. The company said the performance during the quarter was in line with expectations.

THE FTSE 100 at 12:30                        Up        26       @       5344

THE DOW JONES closed                         Up       275      @      11414                       NASDAQ COM closed                            Up        75       @       2548               Commodities Spot Gold $/Oz           $1839 Brent Crude Oil          $115.47 September Delivery    Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.6019 GBP - EURO         1.1405