RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
MORNING REPORT 11th January 2011
UK blue chips have raced away this morning led by the banks as
the government caved in on the issue of bonuses.
As a trade-off for no additional taxes on the expected £7bn of UK
bonuses this year, the banks are in talks to raise their business
lending by 10%, or £20bn, to £200bn. Shares in Barclays, HSBC,
Lloyds and RBS are all sharply higher.
Elsewhere, Marks and Spencer saw group sales rise 4% in the final
quarter of 2010. Like for like (LFL) UK sales were up 2.8%, with
general merchandise sales up 3.8% and food sales 1.8% higher. Marks
estimates the snow trimmed about 1% off food sales and 3% off general
merchandise. Earnings guidance for the current financial year remains
unchanged. Market consensus is for £723m on sales of £9.77bn.
US shopping mall giant Simon Property has dropped its indicative bid
for Capital Shopping Centres but will still vote against the 'deeply
unattractive' acquisition of Manchester's Trafford Centre. Simon had
proposed a bid of 425p per share for the shopping centre group, but
this was conditional on being given access to the books. After the
CSC board repeatedly refused this, Simon says it had no option but to
withdraw. The Takeover Panel had given it a deadline of until 12
January to make an offer.
Finally, Arm Holdings is going well again after a bout of profit
taking after its ground-breaking deal with Microsoft last week.
Wolseley is also going well.
THE FTSE 100 AT 10.15 IS UP 55 @ 6011
THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 37 @ 11,637
THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED UP 15 @ 2707
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD 1.55
GBP – EUR 1.20
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Tuesday 11th, January 2011 11:11pm.
