RAMSEY CROOKALL

12th  August

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 trades higher, turning positive in very choppy trade. Banks fare pretty well, with Barclays up 2.8%, Lloyds Banking Group up 2.6% and RBS up 1.8%. 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 10:00                Up             45             @       5208

THE DOW JONES closed                Up              423           @       11143                         NASDAQ COM closed                    Up             111            @       2492                                Commodities

Spot Gold $/Oz           $1760 Brent Crude Oil          $107.4 September Delivery   

Exchange Rates GBP – USD          1.6266 GBP - EURO         1.1431