RAMSEY CROOKALL                                                         Morning Report

15th July

The FTSE 100 is down 0.33%, off earlier lows but still in the red as tech stocks decline following a disappointing update by European peer Ericsson. Autonomy is down 3% and ARM Holdings down 2.4.%. Meanwhile, heavily-weighted mining stocks are under pressure as base metals prices fall, with Anglo American down 1.7% and Xstrata down 1.6%. Concerns about European and US debt continue to linger, as investors await the results of the European bank stress tests, which are due late this afternoon. In stocks news, BHP Billiton is the heaviest faller in the FTSE 100. The company, best known as a miner, is increasing its oil and gas activities with the $12.1bn (£7.5bn) purchase of Texas and Louisiana-focused firm Petrohawk.

Credit checking firm Experian saw organic revenue growth of 6% in the second quarter of 2011, and continues to anticipate organic revenue growth in the mid-high single digit range over the full-year. Total revenue growth from continuing activities was 10%.

Spectris, which develops precision instrumentation and controls to help firms improve their productivity, expects sales for the first half of 2011 to be more than a fifth higher than the same period last year.

Salamander Energy fell back after the Southeast Asia-focused oil and gas group Salamander said it is abandoning its Dao Ruang-3 well off Thailand after analysis of data from drilling showed it “would have limited potential as a producer.”

Electrocomponents, the FTSE 250 firm which supplies electronic products and provides maintenance services, is higher after it saw revenue rise 14% in its first reporting quarter.

THE FTSE 100 at 10:10                  Down              19         @     5827

THE DOW JONES closed                   Down              54         @     12437                                NASDAQ COMP closed                     Down              34        @     2762                                    Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       1.6099

GBP - EURO         1.1387