RAMSEY CROOKALL

6th September

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is up 1.2%, adding modest gains as investors use recent losses as an excuse to snap up some bargains, particularly in the heavily sold-off mining sector. Kazakhmys is up 2.3%, Xstrata up 1.9%. A jump higher in gold prices also helps the miners, with the yellow metal hitting a new record above $1,920/oz earlier this session. In corporate news, Whitbread is up 8.0%, after its 1H trading update impresses. In other developments, the euro rebounds after the Swiss National Bank says it will no longer tolerate the single currency trading below CHF1.20. No major domestic data due, so eyes will be on euro-zone 2Q GDP announcement.

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 10:00                     Up       64         @       5167

THE DOW JONES closed                     Down     253        @       11240                        NASDAQ COM closed                        Down      65         @       2480               Commoditiest Gold $/Oz           $1891 Brent Crude Oil          $110.96 September Delivery     Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.6131 GBP - EURO          1.1368