RAMSEY CROOKALL

17th  August

Afternoon Report

The FTSE 100 is down 0.7% , but off the session low of 5279.93. Simon . Financials and banks are the biggest decliners following a proposed tax on EU financial transactions Nevertheless, investors are jittery and the FTSE 350 financial services index is down 2.7%. Elsewhere, US stock futures are a tad lower. US July PPI is announced before the US Open.

Among the fallers today is brewing giant SABMiller, lacking fizz as it goes hostile with its £6bn bid for Fosters, after the Australian brewer's directors showed no interest in discussing a takeover. SABMiller is offering A$4.90 per Foster's share, though the offer price will be reduced by an amount equivalent to any dividend or distribution paid by Foster's subsequent to the bid announcement.

Talvivaara Mining has fallen. The Finnish company's second quarter performance was hurt by a production stoppage and declining nickel prices.

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty is lower after it said it expects markets to remain tough in the short term as it posted a meagre rise in underlying pre-tax profits and revenues for the half year to 1 July. Underlying pre-tax profits rose to £138m from £133m, while revenues edged up to £5.222bn from £5.16bn.

Kazakh mining giant ENRC pointed to continued growth in China, which neighbours the central Asian country, and the recovery elsewhere as it posted a sharp rise in profits and revenues in the first half year. Revenues were up by 32% from the same period the previous year at $4.011m while EBITDA (earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation) climbed by 33% to $1.927bn.

Educational publisher Pearson, is one of today's heaviest fallers in the FTSE 100, despite saying it is to receive a belated $115m cash windfall from the sale of its Government Solutions business back in 2006. The business has subsequently been sold on again to General Dynamics.

THE FTSE 100 at 12:00 Down   40 @ 5317                        THE DOW JONES closed             Down    76    @       11405                        NASDAQ COM closed                Down     31    @       2523                              Commodities

Spot Gold $/Oz           $1796 Brent Crude Oil          $110.26 September Delivery   

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD           1.6447 GBP - EURO         1.1381