UK/Euro Financial Market Daily Morning Briefing 06-11-2006

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London shares open higher as miners rally offsets BoE rate caution
      
Leading shares were higher in opening deals as strength in heavyweight miners and positive broker comment offset caution ahead of Thursday's rate decision and the mid-term election in the US.
   
At 9.05 am, the FTSE 100 was 36.7 points firmer at 6,184.8, in line with the broader positive sentiment. Volume was average with 179 mln shares changing hands in 29,995 deals.
   
Meanwhile, Wall Street finished the week under pressure, as a spike in the price of oil and a mixed set of job data added to jitters over the health of the world's largest economy.
   
The Labor Department revealed the unemployment rate hit a five year low, but enthusiasm was tempered as non-farm payrolls missed market forecasts.
   
The DJIA ended off 32.5 points at 11,986.04, the Nasdaq Comp fell 3.23 at 2,330.79 and The S&P 500 was off 3.04 at 1,364.30.
   
Meanwhile, in Asia the Nikkei 225 index closed 14.74 points firmer at 16,364.76, while the Hang Seng was up 62.68 at 18,812.37 by midday.
   
And Australia closed at fresh record highs, up 12.1 points at 5,444.1 as investors bought resource stocks following the rise in metal prices overnight with gold hitting 2 month highs.
   
Back in London, the news helped to lift heavyweight miners with Kazakhmys 15 higher at 1,228, Rio Tinto firmed 29 at 2949, Vedanta gained 10 at 1475, and
Xstrata was 22 to the good at 2327.
   
Broker comment also helped to drive early sentiment, with Unilever up 19 at 1,385, after Merrill Lynch upgraded the household products group to 'neutral' from 'sell'.
    
Home Retail Group was another winner, 3-3/4 ahead of 408, as Merrill Lynch initiated on the recently demerged group with a 'buy' rating and price objective of 455 pence.
   
In a note to clients, the broker said the group offers multi-channel exposure and strong cash flows and is one of the best stocks in the non-food retail sector.
   
And WPP took on 6-1/2 at 670 after UBS advised clients to switch out of French peer Publicis and into the UK advertising giant.
   
Elsewhere a clutch of companies were courted ahead of results later in the week with Yell 10-1/2 firmer at 629, Standard Life up 2-3/4 at 285, BT added 2 at 280-3/4, AB Foods rose 7 at 842 and SABMiller climbed 4 at 1,034.
   

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Press comment gave a lift to Kingfisher, 2 firmer at 265-3/4 after the FT reported wind turbines priced at 1,498 stg have become the top seller at B&Q since they went on sale last month.
   
Retailers are keen to show their concern for the environment amid concern so-called "green" taxes may be imposed on electrical goods after a government report on climate change last week, the paper added.
   
While ITV rose 1 at 104-3/4 on hopes the troubled broadcaster is closing in on appointing a new CEO. The board is expected to meet this week to review a list of candidates for the position, four months after the resignation of Charles Allen.
   
The front runners are thought to include Stephen Carter, former head of media regulator Ofcom, Dawn Airey, a senior executive at Sky, Michael Jackson, a one time chief executive of Channel 4, and Malcolm Wall, formerly with United Business Media, The Observer said.
   
In contrast, BG fell 1-1/2 at 683 as crude eased in morning trade, pulling back from a sharp jump late last week sparked by threats against oil installations in Nigeria.
   
On the second line, Ladbrokes added 2 at 412 after the group confirmed speculation it is considering buying online gaming group 888 Holdings.
   
The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday that Ladbrokes executives flew to Israel over the weekend to hammer out a 470 mln stg takeover of 888, gate-crashing merger talks between 888 and PartyGaming.
   
In early reaction, Goldman Sachs said it believes a successful bid from Ladbrokes would almost certainly hasten a process of consolidation that it feels is "inevitable".
   
In response, PartyGaming was the top riser, up 3/4 at 28-1/4, with the troubled on-line gaiming group further in focus on talk it is eying some of the operations of Austrian peer BWIN.
   
And M&A hopes also lifted Whitbread, 6 better at 1,425 as the market warmed to press speculation Starwood Capital has secretly acquired around 3 pct of the group, fuelling speculation it could be a takeover target.
   
According to a report in the Sunday Times, American property investor Starwood Capital has secretly acquired a stake of almost 3 pct in the group over the past few weeks.
   
Reacting to the news, Panmure Gordon reiterated its 'buy' stance, noting the group has been seen as a 'potential take-out' for some time, and adding that a bid could come in at around 1,700 pence per share.
   

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Elsewhere, Cable & Wireless took on 1-3/4 at 148-1/4 after an upgrade to 'add' from 'hold' by Dresdner Kleinwort, with an improved price target of 160 pence versus 120 previously.
   
The broker said it expects the telecoms group's interim results to detail some early signs of cost-cutting progress in the UK and stable underlying trends in the National Telecom business.
   
Furthermore, in the longer term, it expects an improved performance from C&W's National Telecom business, driven by mobile operations.
   
In earnings, Electrocomponents advanced 1-1/2 at 284-3/4 following in-line results from the electronics distributor, with its UK business returning to growth as it reported a 2.8 pct rise in interim profits to 36.3 mln stg.
   
In response, UBS reiterated its 'buy' stance saying the the 'key positive' was the 'stabilising gross margin trend' in the UK which came in at 53.3 pct year-on-year.
   
And no-frills airline EasyJet rose 10-3/4 at 540-3/4 after peer Ryanair reported first-half results at the top-end of market expectations.
   
Turning to economics, Thursday's rate decision will take centre stage with investors braced for the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to raise borrowing costs to a five-year high in a bid to counter above-target inflation.
   
All 35 economists polled by AFX News expect the MPC to raise its key repo rate by a quarter point to 5.00 pct, its highest level since before the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
   
And data today is expected to confirm manufacturing production rose by 2.3 pct year-on-year in September, up from 1.5 in August -- its biggest jump in two years.

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 Friday's close of trade, click here

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PARIS - Market data at 10.11 am:

Major indices:
   
CAC-40 up 27.87 points or 0.52 pct at 5,364.18
SBF-80 up 32.38 points or 0.51 pct at 6,323.63
SBF-120 up 20.38 points or 0.53 pct at 3,901.90

Volume: 583 mln eur
36 CAC-40 stocks up
4 CAC-40 stocks down
   
Major gainers:
   
Alcatel, up 0.21 eur or 2.15 pct at 9.97
   
Peugeot, up 0.81 eur or 1.78 pct at 46.33
   
Pernod Ricard, up 2.40 eur or 1.50 pct at 161.90, ahead of tomorrow's annual shareholders' meeting.

Major losers:
   
Schneider Electric, down 1.40 eur or 1.62 pct at 85.00
   
Arcelor-Mittal, down 0.41 eur or 1.24 pct at 32.68, erasing an initial rise of more than 1 pct as investors digested its third quarter results and management change. Third quarter EBITDA was higher than expected.
   
Vivendi, down 0.14 eur or 0.46 pct at 30.19, after confirming that an acquisition approach from KKR, valued by the press at 40 bln eur, led to nothing.

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Amsterdam shares AFX market data at 9.47 am
 
Major indices
   
AEX                490.66, up 2.72 points
AMX Midcap         628.82, down 0.12 points
Government bonds   mixed

Major gainers
   
Unilever gained 2.08 pct to 20.13 eur following an upgrade to 'neutral' from 'sell' at Merrill Lynch
   
Getronics rose 1.62 pct to 5.65 eur
   
TNT added 1.12 pct to 30.70 eur after the start of its 1 bln eur share buyback programme
  
Philips added 1.05 pct to 27.79 eur

Major losers
   
Buhrmann traded flat at 11.26 eur after a downgrade to 'hold' at SNS Securities
   
VastNed Retail shed 0.86 pct to 68.80 eur
   
Mittal Steel dropped 1 pct to 32.67 eur after Arcelor-Mittal Q3 earnings report
   
Hunter Douglas lost 1.17 pct to 59 eur ahead of earnings tomorrow

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FRANKFURT - Market data at 10.29 am

Major indices:

DAX up 45.35 or 0.73 pct at 6286.50

MDAX up 55.72 or 0.647 pct at 8752.16

TecDAX up 2.37 eur or 0.35 pct at 687.67

Euro/dollar - 1.2698 usd up 0.0018

Top DAX risers

Adidas up 1.00 eur or 2.55 pct at 40.15, as Barron's online reports that the shares in the athletic and sporting goods manufacturer could top 50 eur as the Reebok brand lifts revenue by 50 pct

Munich Re, up 2.72 eur or 2.15 pct at 129.42, ahead of tomorrow's third quarter results

Deutsche Boerse, up 1.99 eur or 1.55 pct at 130.39 ahead of tonight's release of Q3 results

Infineon Technolgies, up 0.14 eur or 1.51 pct to 9.40

Allianz, up 2.13 eur or 1.48 pct at 146.06, after raft of broker price target up upgrades

Top DAX fallers

Deutsche Telekom shares down 0.10 eur or 0.74 pct at 13.49 eur.

Man AG down 0.15 eur or 0.21 pct at 70.51 eur.

Commerzbank down 0.04 pct ot 0.14 pct at 28.97 as Citibank lowers rating to 'hold' from 'Buy'

Tui, down 0.02 eur or 0.11 pct at 17.530

Deutsche Postbank down 0.05 eur or 0.08 pct at 59.30.

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