UK/Euro Financial Market Daily Morning Briefing 24-10-2006

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London shares up, bolstered by record run on Wall Street and strength in BP

UK blue chips remained up in early deals, buoyed by a record close across the Atlantic yesterday, with Tate & Lyle climbing the table following positive broker comment, and with BP also up after it announced that profits rose in the third quarter, dealers said.
   
At 8.58 the FTSE 100 was up 3.2 points at 6,169.3 while the wider market was mixed. The FTSE 100 was off of an earlier day's high of 6,180.2.
   
Overnight, Wall Street extended its Oct rally as investors grew more confident about upcoming earnings reports and as a decline in oil bolstered hopes for higher consumer spending. The Dow Jones crossed 12,100 for the first time and reached a new record high close. The DJIA closed the session up 114.54, or 0.95 percent, at 12,116.91.
   
Sentiment was also bolstered by President Bush on Monday after he trumpeted the strength of the economy, an important issue in about two dozen congressional races that will determine whether Republicans retain control of the House.
   
Faced with difficult midterm elections and a deteriorating situation in Iraq, Bush is stressing the positive.
   
"The strength of this economy depends upon the strength of the small business sector," Bush said at a round-table where he talked about his administration's role in reducing taxes and limiting regulation and lawsuits that he says impede entrepreneurial spirit.
   
Meanwhile, today sees the beginning of a two day FOMC meeting where many investors expect the interest rate to remain unchanged at 5.25 pct.
   
After the close, and making the front page of today's Financial Times, former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to 24 years and four months in the harshest sentence yet in the case that arose from the energy trading giant's collapse.
   
Across the way in Asia, the Hang Sang Index ended the morning up 81.21 points or 0.45 pct at 18,171.06, off a low of 18,121.70 and high of 18,173.43. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 closed down 8.35 points at 16,780.47.
   
Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso rejected North Korea's demand that the US lift financial sanctions in exchange for its return to multilateral nuclear disarmament talks.
   
In oil play, prices were weaker in view of the buoyancy of US reserves of crude and doubts about OPEC's ability to carry out the production cut it has announced, analysts said.

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The New York Mercantile Exchange's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, was down 0.01 usd at 58.80 usd a barrel from its close of 58.81 usd in the US overnight. Brent North Sea crude for Dec had fallen 0.11 usd to 59.10 usd.
   
In London, following a slow day's trade yesterday, things will be heating up as a raft of corporate numbers hit the market.
   
Sticking with oil, UK giant BP, up 1 pence at 602 1/2, saw profits rise in the third quarter as strong oil prices outweighed weak volumes and refining margins, but warned that it will miss its guidance for annual production.
   
The group, which kicked off the European energy sector's reporting season, reported a replacement cost net profit of 5.75 bln usd, which excluded 1.225 bln usd in one-time gains, up from 5.3 bln usd previously, which included 921 mln usd in one-off charges.
   
Peers Shell and BG Group were both up in sympathy, 12 at 1, 822 and 6 at 700 1/2 respectively.
   
Shares in Tate & Lyle were up 8 1/2 pence at 763, having been upgraded to 'equal-weight' from 'underweight' by Morgan Stanley, with an increased target of 750 pence on a pick-up in earnings momentum.
  
Morgan Stanley said it had upped its 2007 and 2008 EPS estimates by 5.6 pct to 47.5 pence and by 4.9 pct to 55.8 pence.
   
Household products group Reckitt Benckiser cheered investors, up 13 at 2, 213, as the market widely expects the firm to report strong third quarter sales growth today, analysts say.
   
Reckitt, which makes products such as Mr Sheen, Vanish and Airwick, is expected to say solid momentum in western Europe and continued good growth in developing markets has made up for somewhat weaker growth in North America.
   
On the downside, the miners were in focus due to a slide in commodity prices.
   
Anglo American dropped 49 pence to 2, 366, Kazakhmys dipped 22 to 1,207, BHP Billiton sunk 13 to 1,007, Antofagasta shed 5 3/4 to 507 1/4, Rio Tinto eased 29 to 2, 816 and Lonmin was down 24 at 2, 821.
   
Anglo was also dented by news that it has appointed Cynthia Carroll as its new chief executive to replace Tony Trahar who, as previously announced, plans to retire.
   
Carroll, currently president at Alcan Primary Metal Group, will join the Anglo American Board in mid Jan 2007 and will succeed Trahar as chief executive on March 1. Trahar will step down from the board in April.

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Meanwhile BHP's production update failed to impress analysts, even though its output of aluminium, in its financial first quarter ended Sept 30, was a record and its output of iron ore broadly matched the record achieved in the preceding quarter, the company said. UBS remained buyers of the stock.
   
On the second tier, Premier Farnell pleased the market, up 3 1/4 at 197 3/4, after it said trading in the third quarter to end of Oct is showing progress on a year ago with growth in sales per day and gross margin improvement, in line with management expectations.
    
Debenhams was a key feature, up 3 1/4 pence at 182 3/4, as the UK's second largest department store group, which rejoined the stock market in May, reported a 68 pct rise in full-year underlying pretax profit but cautioned that the retail climate in its new financial year has been "volatile", impacted by the unseasonably warm weather.
   
Sticking with retailers, Carpetright was another crowd pleaser, better by 17 at 1, 175, as the specialist carpet and floor coverings retailer said that in the first 25 weeks of the year to April 2007 total sales in UK and Ireland increased 5.9 pct with like for like sales up by 0.3 pct.
   
The rest of Europe has recorded a total sales increase of 9.1 pct with like for like sales up by 3.6 pct, it added.
   
Positive broker comment helped shares in Regus higher by 1 pence to 107 1/2, with Goldman Sachs initiating coverage of the stock with a 'buy' recommendation and 141 pence target.
   
In the reverse, Autonomy suffered on profit taking, down 17 1/2 pence at 495 1/2. In earlier play the company posted better-than-expected third-quarter results, with pretax profits for the period surging 220 pct to 15.92 mln usd, further boosted by a raft of new contract wins from the likes of Bayer and EMC.
   
Finally, Generic and in-licensed drugmaker Hikma Pharmaceuticals eased 12 1/2 pence to 422 after it said it expects full-year sales at its generic division to be "slightly below those achieved in 2005" due to decreasing wholesaler inventories and a lower than forecast contribution from new product launches.

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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FRANKFURT - Market data at 9.15   

Major indices:

DAX 30 - down 10.57 or 0.18 pct at 6,232.63
MDAX - up 3.93, or 0.05 pct at 8,692.44
TecDAX - up 1.91, or 0.28 pct at 683.72
DAX future - down 21.0 at 6,261.5
Oil - 58.80 usd a barrel vs close of 58.81
Gold - 579.20-579.70 usd an ounce
Euro/dollar - 1.2536 usd from 1.2545.

DAX 30 risers
   
Deutsche Bank, up 0.41, or 0.43 pct at 98.42
   
Henkel, up 0.44, or 0.42 at 106.26
   
Bayer, up 0.30, or 0.74 pct at 40.65
   
Commerzbank, up 0.07, or 0.25 pct at 27.76
   
SAP, up 0.45, or 0.28 pct at 159.17
   
DAX 30 fallers
   
Volkswagen, down 0.50, or 0.67 pct at 73.75
   
Deutsche Boerse, down 1.23, or 0.96 pct at 127.55; Liffe chief warns on merger with DB1
  
Munich Re, down 1.25, or 0.97 pct at 127.58
   
Metro, down 0.31, or 0.63 pct at 45.45
   
Siemens, down 0.58, or 0.77 pct at 70.95

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AMSTERDAM - Market data at 10.15 am:

Major indices
   
AEX                 492.45, up 0.15 point
AMX Midcap          623.20, down 0.95 point
Government bonds    unchanged to slightly higher

Major gainers:
   
Boskalis extended yesterday's gains, rising 2.67 pct at 57.70 amid hopes of contract wins after the approval of plans to expand the Panama canal
   
Construction group BAM advanced 1.05 pct at 16.38
   
Reed Elsevier was 0.59 pct higher at 13.62 and fellow publisher Wolters KLuwer was up 0.57 pct at 21.02
   
Royal Dutch Shell put on 0.53 pct at 26.48, lifted by strong third-quarter results from peer BP
   
Oce advanced 1.0 pct at 12.10 as Theodoor Gilissen upped the issue to 'buy' from 'hold' on expected higher sales growth in the US and on continued positivity about the printer and copier company's Imagistics acquisition

Major losers:
   
KPN shed 1.35 pct at 10.25
   
ASML lost 1.1 pct at 17.90 after Texas Instruments overnight warned of a drop in fourth-quarter orders due to rising inventories. Getronics fell 0.74 pct at 5.40 and LogicaCMG eased 0.79 pct at 2.51
   
Unilever gave up 0.86 pct at 19.49
   
Vedior slipped 0.75 pct at 15.78 after Petercam downgraded the stock to 'reduce' from 'add' on concerns over growth potential within the French market and continued weak performance in the UK sector

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PARIS - Market data at 9.35 am;

Major indices:

CAC-40 down 11.07 at 5,400.74
SBF-80 down 2.01 at 6,212.41
SBF-120 down 7.16 at 3,914.56

Volume: 460 mln eur
19 CAC-40 stocks up
21 CAC-40 stocks down

Major gainers:

Euronext up 1.20 at 82.60

Atos Origin up 0.60 at 44.25

Thales up 0.41 at 36.67

Major losers:

Business Objects down 0.68 at 27.20

STMicroelectronics down 0.17 at 13.50

Altran Technologies down 0.09 at 7.66

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