RAMSEY CROOKALL

11th  August

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is up 2%, maintaining solid gains. Banks and financials are higher overall, bouncing from Wednesday's lows. Fears regarding France and French banks have dissipated. There is also some cheer as the European Central Bank buys Italian and Spanish bonds. Additionally, miners rise as investors look again at cyclical stocks following the week's cautious trading. On the downside, Imperial Tobacco is down 0.4% as defensive stocks fall out of favor. US trade balance figures are announced before the US open  along with initial jobless claims.    Shares of Essar Energy PLC were among the top performers on the benchmark index. The stock rose 3.7% as it partially recovered from a fall of nearly 13% in the previous session, when Goldman Sachs removed the stock from its conviction buy list. Miners are rallying strongly, led higher by Kazakh copper miner Kazakhmys, but French banking fears seem to have spread across the channel, with Lloyds Banking Group and RBS the only fallers in the FTSE 100.

Anglo Pacific notched up a record level of royalty income in the first half of 2011, despite adverse weather conditions in Australia. The global natural resources royalties company said royalty income in the first half of the year rose to £16.4m from £15.7m in the first half of last year. Second quarter royalty income was lower year-on-year, however, at £6.5m compared to £11.1m in the second quarter of 2010.

Morgan Sindall, the construction and regeneration group, has secured a major regeneration scheme contract in Chester city centre, with a total development value of approximately £115m

THE FTSE 100 at 10:00                  Up              103         @       5110

THE DOW JONES closed                   Down            519         @       10719                         NASDAQ COM closed                     Down            101         @       2381                                 Commodities Spot Gold $/Oz           $1792 Brent Crude Oil          $107.04 September Delivery   

Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.6184 GBP - EURO          1.1352