RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

15th June 2011

Morning Report



The FTSE 100 is down 0.3% , slipping as the market reacts negatively to the UK unemployed figure, which shows a 19,600 rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit. By contrast the employment number rose 80,000 in the last three months, with unemployment falling 88,000. In stocks, banks decline amid worries about exposure to Greek Debt after Moody's placed three of France's banking giants under review for a possible downgrade.

Supermarket group Sainsbury is going well after it saw like-for-like sales growth in line with management's expectations in the 12 weeks to 11 June, though the growth rate was below some brokers' estimates. "Fuel price inflation combined with strong fuel volume growth resulted in an increase in total sales of 7.3%, with like-for-like sales up 4.8%. Excluding fuel, total sales were up 4.3%, with like-for-like sales up 1.9%," chief executive Justin King revealed.

Meanwhile, Tesco, which yesterday failed to report a move back into sales growth in the UK, is lower again.

Consulting and business services group Mouchel is another big faller today after it warned that it faces 'very challenging' trading amid UK local authority spending cuts. "The short-term outlook for the group continues to be very challenging and is heavily influenced by the steps the Coalition government is taking to rapidly bring down the deficit in public spending," it said in a company statement.

Back in the FTSE 100, in a brief statement in response to press speculation, commodities trader Glencore International has stated it is not actively considering an offer for Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC).

Also in mining, sector giant Rio Tinto is speeding up the expansion of its iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is pumping in US$676m (£412m) to achieve capacity expansion to 333m tonnes a year in the first half of 2015, six months earlier than planned.

THE FTSE 100 at 10:00 Down 20 @ 5782

THE DOW JONES closed Up 123 @ 12076

THE NASDAQ COMP closed Up 39 @ 2678



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GBP - EURO 1.1367