RAMSEY CROOKALL

21st  July

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is confidently higher, buttressed by banks as investors once again take on risky stocks after euro-zone leaders agree a second bailout package for Greece. Banks lead the gain with Royal Bank of Scotland up 3.1% and Barclays 3.1% higher. Mining stocks are also slightly higher as copper prices edge up.

Rio Tinto gains 1.9%, Lonmin is up 1.8%. Elsewhere, Aviva gains 2.5% at 431p on newspaper reports the company may be subject to a takeover offer at 600p a share. No major data is due for publication.

Today’s standout stock is easyJet, with the budget airline up 15% after saying it expects full-year pre-tax profits to fall in the range of £200m to £230m. Market consensus is for an adjusted profit before tax of £183.1m.

Similarly, paper and packaging firm Mondi expects profits for the first half of 2011 to be “considerably higher” than in the same period last year, it said in an announcement today, but its gains are more modest.

New World Resources, the central Europe focused coal miner, has reiterated its full year production and sales targets, but prices have been falling. The shares are lower. It said average agreed price of coking coal for delivery in the third calendar quarter of 2011 is €192 a tonne, a decrease of 9% from the second quarter realised price, "in line with lower international prices both for hard and semi-soft coking coal."

Mobile phone networks giant Vodafone has seen revenue from its core business grow 1.5% in the second quarter of 2011 although the firm is certainly struggling against some serious headwinds in some markets, particularly in southern Europe. The group reiterated its previous performance guidance for the current financial year.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC is expected to report that sales in the second quarter fell again, but at a slower rate than in previous quarters, and reiterate confidence that actual sales growth will return from 2012 on, helped by new products and further expansion in emerging markets.

FTSE 100 10:10     Up 57 @ 5957                         THE DOW JONES closed                 Up            152      @      12724                             NASDAQ COMP closed                     Up             20      @      2834                                          Exchange Rates

GBP – USD          1.6293 GBP - EURO         1.1306