RAMSEY CROOKALL

6th September

Afternoon  Report

The FTSE 100 is up 1.4% as investors continue to recoup more of the losses suffered in the last session. Basic resources stocks are rebounding after Monday's heavy sell-off, Antofagasta gains 0.6%, BHP Billiton is up 1.7%. In corporate news, Whitbread adds 7.1% as it impresses with 1H earnings and BAE Systems gains 3.2% after announcing post-close Monday that it has bought back 1.4M shares. Still to come on the data front, U.S. ISM non-manufacturing data for August announced before the US open.

Reinforced polymer technology Fenner jumped after it revealed that numbers for the year ended 31 August are likely to be ahead of market expectations, due to strong growth in both the Conveyor Belting and Advanced Engineering Products divisions.

Brewing and pubs group Greene King opened higher as it saw like-for-like (LFL) year-on-year sales growth in its retail business in the 18 weeks to 4 September, despite going up against tough comparatives that were boosted by last year's World Cup.

Irish mining firm Kenmare Resources has achieved 'Technical Completion' at the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine in Mozambique, a major milestone towards releasing its loan guarantees for the project. Shares were higher.

THE FTSE 100 at 12:00                        Up         72         @       5175

THE DOW JONES closed                         Down       253        @       11240                       NASDAQ COM closed                            Down       65         @       2480               Commodities

Spot Gold $/Oz           $1887 Brent Crude Oil          $111.05 September Delivery     Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.6099 GBP - EURO         1.1342