RAMSEY CROOKALL
12th August
Afternoon Report
The FTSE 100 is extending session gains, pulled up by strength in banking and
mining stocks. Barclays is up 7.3%, topping the index. Royal Bank of Scotland
is up 4.7% and Lloyds Banking Group up 4.6%. Miners rise on higher metal prices.
Kazakhmys up 5% and Fresnillo rising 2.8%. Looking ahead, US retail sales data
and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey are released before the
US open.
Oil-related stocks were on the fall in early trade as the price of Brent Crude
fell 0.85% to $107.10 per barrel at the open. Tullow Oil, Amec and Petrofac were
among the worst performers. FTSE 250 peer Premier Oil fell after announcing that
it is to plug and abandon its Belut-Laut 1 exploration well in the Tuna block,
Indonesia.
Oil firm EnQuest, however, is making gains after profits surged 145% on sales that
doubled in the first half. The group said it remains on target to achieve its full-year
production forecasts.
International private equity investor and fund management business SVG Capital rose
after its net asset value shot up 24.7% t o 393.3p in the first half of 2011.
Sports retailers Sport Direct International and JJB Sports were in demand after the
Office of Fair Trading announced on Thursday that it has "provisionally decided to
close its investigation [...] into alleged anti-competitive conduct in the sports
goods retail sector."
Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror made strong gains saying that 'changes to the
national Sunday newspaper market' prompted 'considerable circulation volume growth'
for its Sunday titles.
THE FTSE 100 at 12:05 Up 76 @ 5239
THE DOW JONES closed Up 423 @ 11143
NASDAQ COM closed Up 111 @ 2492
Commodities
Spot Gold $/Oz $1752
Brent Crude Oil $108.18
September Delivery
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD 1.6277
GBP - EURO 1.1432
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