UK/Euro Financial Market Daily Morning Briefing 04-01-2007

London shares open lower as commodity weakness adds to mixed Wall St
 
Leading shares opened the session lower as a mixed close on Wall Street added to weakness in energy stocks following a slump in commodity prices overnight, dealers said.
   
At 9.01 am, the FTSE 100 index was down 38.0 points at 6281.0, mirroring the negative wider market.
   
Volume was relatively thin with 276 mln shares changing hands in 49,230 deals.
   
Meanwhile, Wall Street ended its first session of 2007 mixed, with the DJIA giving up earlier triple-digit gains after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting showed growing concern over the severity of the pullback in the housing sector.
   
The DJIA closed up 11.37 at 12,474.52, after surging to a new trading high of 12,580.35, the S&P 500 index fell 1.67 to 1,416.63, while the Nasdaq rose 7.87 to 2,423.16.
   
And today, investors will scrutinise the latest factory orders data -- seen growing 1.2 pct in November after falling 4.7 pct in October -- in a bid to gauge the health of the world's biggest economy.
   
Over in Asia the mood was mixed, as the Hang Seng Index ended the morning down 174.25 at 20,239.14, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index closed 127.84 higher at 17,353.67.
   
Back in London, heavyweight miners helped to drag blue chips lower, mirroring another slump in metal prices, with copper losing a further 3 pct as investors fretted over falling demand and rising stockpiles.
   
BHP Billiton led the fallers, down 28-1/2 pence at 904, further hit by news a storm off Australia's southwest coast has forced the company to close nickel operations in the area.

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Peers Rio Tinto lost 82 at 2571, Vedanta was off 39 at 1119, Xstrata fell 68 at 2349, Antofagasta was down 13 at 475 and Kazakhmys eased 28 at 1059.
   
Oil majors also weighed, still reeling from a 4.5 pct slump in crude prices yesterday as persistent mild weather in the US led traders to bet on lagging demand for heating fuels.
   
Light, sweet crude for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 2.73 usd from Friday's settlement price to a six-week low of 58.32 -- the biggest one-day drop since August 2005.
   
BP was off 5 at 564-1/2, Royal Dutch Shell fell 16 at 1802, BG was down 6-1/2 at 688 and Cairn Energy eased 16 at 1784.
   
In contrast, Next took on 13 at 1860 after the retailing group accompanied news of slightly weaker trading with an upbeat outlook for the current year.
   
The high street and catalogue fashion retailer announced it expects year to end-Jan 2007 pretax profit to be "slightly ahead" of the market's consensus forecast, within the range of 463-473 mln stg, up from 449 mln stg last time.
   
In reaction, Panmure Gordon raised its recommendation to 'hold' from 'sell' while Seymour Pierce moved to 'hold' from 'underperform'.
   
The news helped to lift peers Marks & Spencer, up 7-1/2 at 743-1/2, and Home Retail Group, 1-1/4 better at 416.
   
Elsewhere, the oil price slump helped to boost national carrier British Airways, 2 to the good at 545-1/4, chemical giant ICI, 9 firmer at 463-1/2 and cruise operator Carnival -- 71 higher at 2752.
   
Carnival was further boosted as Morgan Stanley hiked its price target on the group to 3,150 pence, up from 2,750 pence, as it reiterated its 'overweight' recommendation.
   
In a note to clients, the broker said the price hike reflects Carnival's recent better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and outlook.

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Defensive stocks were also courted with Imperial Tobacco up 6 at 2072, Scottish & Southern rising 2 at 1563 and GlaxoSmithKline up 3 at 1391.
   
On the second line, M&A hopes lifted Cobham, 7-3/4 higher at 203-1/4 on news a Spanish investor bought a 5 pct stake worth about 110 mln stg in the aerospace engineer.
   
After the close yesterday, Cobham revealed Francesc Rubiralta Vilaseca, owner of the steel company Celsa, upped his stake in the group, prompting UBS to reiterate its 'buy' advice and say the news will highlight takeover options.
   
The news also sparked consolidation hopes in peer Meggitt -- up 12-1/4 at 326-1/4.
   
Still on the upside, Southern Cross rose 11-1/4 at 330 after the healthcare group confirmed it raised 127.5 mln stg before expenses in a placing announced yesterday.
   
On the downside, oil groups reflected weakness in their blue chip peers with Expro International down 35-1/2 at 852, Dana off 39 at 1195, Burren Energy losing 22 at 867 and Tullow Oil falling 8-1/4 at 393-1/2.

UK Diary of Events

For a diary of key UK financial and corporate events today, click here

US Summary

For a summary of US stocks at yesterday's close of trade, click here

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PARIS - Market data at 10.08 am:

Major indices:
   
CAC-40 down 39.60 points or 0.71 pct at 5,571.32
SBF-80 down 37.14 points or 0.56 pct at 6,743.33
SBF-120 down 28.40 points or 0.69 pct at 4,067.53

Volume: 722 mln eur
6 CAC-40 stocks up
34 CAC-40 stocks down

Major gainers:
  
Accor, up 0.75 eur or 1.27 pct at 59.80
   
Altran Technologies, up 0.08 eur or 1.08 pct at 7.50
   
Peugeot, up 0.45 eur or 0.86 pct at 52.70, after an upgrade to 'buy' vs 'hold' at Citigroup.

Major losers:
   
Vallourec, down 8.30 eur or 3.80 pct at 210.40
   
Arcelor Mittal (Mittal Steel), down 0.93 eur or 2.95 pct at 30.62
   
Alcatel-Lucent, down 0.18 eur or 1.55 pct at 11.47

Most active stocks:
   
Total, 110 mln eur, down 0.85 eur or 1.56 pct at 53.70
   
Credit Agricole, 51 mln eur, down 0.04 eur or 0.13 pct at 31.96. CM-CIC Securities lowered its price target to 38 eur from 40 to coincide with the bank group's launch of a 4 bln eur capital rise to finance acquisitions.
   
Vallourec, 41 mln eur

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AMSTERDAM -  Market data at 10.10 am:

Major indices
   
AEX                499.07, down 2.28 points
AMX Midcap         682.92, down 3.40 points
Government bonds   Mixed

Major gainers
   
Akzo Nobel rose 2.51 pct to 48.18 eur after reports that it is investigating the possibility of selling its Organon division to private equity funds
   
VastNed Retail added 0.41 pct to 74.30 eur
   
Imtech gained 0.78 pct to 49.08 eur
   
TNT added 0.15 pct to 33.30 eur
   
Major losers
   
Boskalis shed 3.07 pct to 72.70 eur
   
SBM Offshore dropped 1.84 pct to 25.54 eur
   
ASML lost 1.55 pct to 18.48 eur
   
Royal Dutch Shell lost 1.42 pct to 26.38 eur
   
Stork dropped 0.60 pct to 39.56 eur after announcing the acquisition of Turbo Service for 49 mln eur
   
ING was off 0.32 pct to 33.97 eur after selling its ING Trust unit

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FRANKFURT - Market data at 10.38 am

Major indices:
   
DAX - down 47.53 points or 0.71 pct at 6,643.79
MDAX - down 59.50 points or 0.63 pct at 9,477.50
TecDAX - up 11.38 points or 1.46 pct at 766.02
DAX futures - down 14.50 points or 0.22 pct at 6,691.50
   
Major losers:
   
ThyssenKrupp, down 1.01 eur or 2.81 pct at 34.95, extending yesterday's losses
   
EON, down 2.25 or 2.17 pct to 101.50
   
RWE, down 1.47 eur or 1.72 pct at 84.02
   
BMW, down 0.71 eur or 1.61 pct to 43.34, after a downgrade by Citigroup to 'hold' from 'buy' despite a 16 pct increase in US car sales. Citigroup saw the downgrade as a consequence of BMW's exposure to exchange rate risks and of high CO2 emissions from its vehicles.
   
Fresenius Medical Care, down 0.94 eur or 0.90 at 103.00
   
Major gainers:
   
Deutsche Telekom, up 0.23 eur or 1.63 pct to 14.29, due to technical reasons after the stock crossed an important resistance level at 13.90 eur
   
Hypo Real Estate, up 0.13 eur or 0.27 pct at 49.16
   
Deutsche Post, up 0.05 eur or 0.22 pct at 23.20,
   
Deutsche Postbank, up 0.12 eur or 0.18 pct at 64.99
   
Metro, up 0.06 eur or 0.12 pct to 50.03
 
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