RAMSEY CROOKALL

18th July

Afternoon Report

The FTSE 100 trades down 0.94%, continuing to extend losses amid a dearth of fresh economic data or much positive corporate news. Investors are left to mull over the results of the European Banking authority's stress tests published last week and existing or inchoate debt on both sides of the Atlantic. Banks are lower on such concerns with Royal Bank of Scotland down 3.3% and Barclays also down 3.3%. On the FTSE 250, Rank gains 6.4%  as Evolution Securities raises its target price. No major data are due for the rest of the session. Eight European banks failed stress tests drawn up by the European Banking Authority (EBA). Five Spanish banks – Catalunya Caixa, Pastor, Unnim, Caja3 and CAM –and two from Greece – ATEbank and EFG Eurobank  were deemed not to be sufficiently healthy to withstand a banking crisis. More surprisingly perhaps, one Austrian bank, the Oestereichische Volksbank, failed. Lloyds Banking Group is among the fallers in London today.

In stocks news, commodity trading house Glencore is adding to its metal assets in Peru with the purchase of a 70% stake in Marcobre, which owns the Marcona Copper property and the Mina Justa exploration and development project, for $475m (£295m).

Global engineering giant GKN is looking to expand its Land Systems division after announcing that it is to acquire engineer Stromag for €164m (£146m).

Shares in technology firm Seeing Machines jumped 25% on Monday after it trumpeted the arrival of the world's first 3D laptop that requires no special glasses for watching movies or playing games in 3D. Seeing Machines' said its faceAPI technology was a key technological component in the glasses-free 3D capability, allowing the laptop's built-in webcam to track the viewer's eye position.

THE FTSE 100 at 12:00                        Down    68     @      5775

THE DOW JONES closed                       Up         42     @      12479                              NASDAQ COMP closed                           Up         27     @      2789                                              Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.6077 GBP - EURO         1.1453