ADVFN Morning Euro Markets Bulletin - June 24th 2011

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London Market Reports


The Footsie registered sharp gains in early trading, after last night's reports from Greece buoyed sentiment in London. The FTSE 100 opened up 68 higher at 5,742 on Friday morning.

With Greece and the European Union settled on the contents of the austerity package to be put before the Greek parliament next week, hopes have risen that the prospect of a default by Greece on its loans can be put to bed. As news broke of the agreement late yesterday, the US markets performed an abrupt volte-face, wiping out earlier losses.

Back on the home front, London and south-east house builder Berkeley Group surged on the FTSE 250 after reporting forecast-beating figures, on both the sales and the profit level, but investors will have to wait a little longer before they they can benefit from the resumption of a dividend.

Sector peers Barratt Developments, Persimmon and Bellway were also in demand.

Miners, on the whole, were wanted, recovering from the broad sector sell-off experienced on Thursday. Blue chips Antofagasta, Randgold, Xstrata, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo and Rio Tinto made solid gains early on.

Satellite group Inmarsat was the only stock on the FTSE 100 in the red as of 08:45.

Distribution and outsourcing firm Bunzl opened higher after saying that it is trading in line with expectations, despite tough times in its UK and Irish markets. At constant exchange rates group revenue in the six months to the end of April is expected to have increased 6%, due to underlying growth of 3% and the positive impact from acquisitions, with a slight improvement in operating margin.

Gold miner African Barrick Gold has had further success with its in-fill drilling at its Tusker resource area at the Nyanzaga project in Tanzania.

FTSE 100 - Risers
GKN (GKN) 213.60p +3.24%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,274.00p +2.99%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,015.00p +2.77%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,277.50p +2.73%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,268.00p +2.68%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,283.00p +2.56%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 581.00p +2.56%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,295.00p +2.27%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 37.53p +2.15%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,872.00p +1.92%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Inmarsat (ISAT) 562.50p -0.79%


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UK Event Calendar
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd., Keystone Inv Trust, London Security, Northern Venture Trust, Standard Life Equity Income Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Consumer Confidence Indicator (FRA) (07:45)
IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)
IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)
IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)
Retail Sales (GER)
Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)
GDP (Final) (US) (13:30)

FINALS
Berkeley Group Holdings

ANNUAL REPORT
Alpha Tiger Property Trust Ltd., Northern 3 VCT

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Rotork

EGMS
United Bank Ltd. GDR (Reg S)

AGMS
Anglo Asian Mining, Canaccord Financial Inc., Cazenove Absolute Equity Ltd., Central Rand Gold Ltd., Diamond Circle Capital, Empyrean Energy, Fubon Financial Holdings Co Ltd.GDR (Reg S), Mitsubishi Corp., Narborough Plantations, Symphony Environmental Technologies

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
BrainJuicer Group, Dignity, Fortune Oil, JKX Oil & Gas, John Menzies, Kings Arms Yard VCT, Kings Arms Yard VCT 2, Lees Foods, Matrix Income & Growth 4 VCT, Maven Income & Growth 2 VCT, Networkers International, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Spectris, Ukrproduct Group Ltd., Witan Pacific Inv Trust, Xaar


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European Market Reports
Stocks surge on Greek rescue hopes

Markets have made a strong start, with optimism over the Greek debt crisis fuelling gains.

European Union (EU) leaders have pledged to release funds to Greece to stave off the prospect of the nation defaulting on its loans, wit the proviso that the Greek parliament passes a package of austerity measures next week.

Evangelos Venizelos, Greece's new finance minister, said he had agreed changes to a five-year austerity package with EU-International Monetary Fund negotiators. The changes included a raft of new taxes designed to plug a €5.5bn (£4.87bn) gap in the internationally-imposed austerity programme.

The benchmark stock market indices in France and Germany are both up by more than 1%, with the CAC in the former 51 points firmer at 3,839 and the DAX in the latter 73 points higher at 7,223. In Spain, the IBEX is 75 points to the good at 10,018.

Excitement over developments in the Greek debt crisis are masking the fact that there is not a lot of action on the corporate front today.

Software consultancy Cap Gemini is the top performer in Paris, with investors chasing the shares higher after another technology consultancy group, Accenture, lifted its full-year revenue and earnings guidance.

In broker action, airline Air France-KLM is gaining altitude after Citigroup upgraded the stock from "hold" to "buy".

CAC 40 - Risers
Cap Gemini (CAP) € 38.67 +3.55%
Lafarge (LG) € 43.06 +2.23%
Danone (BN) € 52.24 +2.21%
Schneider Electric (SU) € 110.15 +2.09%
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) € 3.73 +1.97%
LVMH (MC) € 116.75 +1.83%
Peugeot (UG) € 29.83 +1.58%
Vinci (DG) € 42.37 +1.55%
Renault (RNO) € 39.28 +1.54%
Accor (AC) € 28.64 +1.51%

CAC 40 - Fallers
None


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US Market Reports

Dow Jones NASDAQ NYSE AMEX

Please click on the images to view our interactive charts

Despite a poor start, US markets rallied in the afternoon period with the Nasdaq finishing in the green. While the Dow and the S&P 500 closed moderately lower, late gains offset steep early losses, as positive news on the Greek crisis bolstered sentiment on Wall Street.

Hurting the mood early one was last night's reduction to the Federal Reserve's 2011 GDP forecast , which was cut back to 2.8% last night, versus 3.2% in April. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke also signaled the end of the second round of quantitative easing, a measure which has been diluting the value of the dollar. This prompted investors to beef up their dollar positions on Thursday, causing a broad commodity sell-off, with oil and metals prices taking a tumble.

Also hurting the price of oil was the International Energy Agency´s (IEA) Director Nobuo Tanaka who announced today that the 28 IEA member countries have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil in the coming month in response to the ongoing disruption of oil supplies from Libya.

Nevertheless, a late report from Reuters revealed that the International Monetary Fund and the European Union consented to Greece's five-year austerity plan, which includes tax hikes and cuts to public spending. This sparked a late recovery, with stocks regaining some ground in the afternoon.

The Dow finished 60 lower at 12,050, the S&P 500 fell 4 to 1,284, while the Nasdaq rose 18 to 2,687.

Chevron and Exxon Mobil were heavy fallers on the day, tracking oil prices lower. Cloud computing firm Red Hat was wanted after reporting better-than-anticipated figures for the full quarter. The company also raised its full-year targets.

House builder Lennar released forecast-beating earnings before the start of trading, helping share higher.

Meanwhile, Oracle fell despite revealing profits that beat analysts' estimates, as a fall in hardware sales surprised many.

Early on, losses were lengthened by some dampening economic news:

Initial weekly unemployment claims rose by 9,000 to 429,000, versus expectations for a rise to 415,000; the Chicago Federal Reserve´s national activity index improved to -0.37 in May, from -0.55 the month before. However, the 3 moving average edged down to -0.19, from -0.15 the month before, indicating below trend economic growth; US new home sales fell 2.1% on month in May, to 319,000 (Consensus: 308,000).


S&P 500 - Risers
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $37.01 +7.06%
Bristol-Myers Sqibb (BMY) $29.33 +5.73%
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) $56.35 +4.24%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) $21.76 -3.46%
Flowserve Corp. (FLS) $105.69 -3.05%
HCP Inc. (HCP) $36.53 -3.00%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $35.65 +2.06%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $20.65 +1.82%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $21.68 +1.33%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $64.98 -2.14%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $99.36 -1.69%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $78.47 -1.69%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $15.71 +4.94%
Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) $29.77 +4.82%
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) $56.35 +4.24%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) $21.76 -3.46%
Staples Inc. (SPLS) $15.15 -2.06%
News Corp. Class A (NWSA) $16.41 -1.88%


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Newspaper Round-up: People's bank, LSE, Debenhams
Greek austerity, Bank shares, Cameron...

In Athens, Evangelos Venizelos, the country's new finance minister, said the changes included a raft of new taxes designed to plug a €5.5bn (£4.87bn) gap in the internationally-imposed austerity programme. The Greek government had struggled to close a black hole in the austerity plan, and the new measures will face a key vote in the Greek parliament next week, according to the Telegraph.

A Coalition row erupted yesterday as senior Tories poured scorn on a call by Nick Clegg for voters to be given free shares in state-owned banks. The Deputy Prime Minister backed a suggestion that all 45 million registered electors should be handed a stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group, writes the Independent.

David Cameron won a categoric assurance from the EU President, Herman van Rompuy, in Brussels last night that Britain will not be dragged into the next Greek bailout.

The Prime Minister fought off a German attempt to include a European Commission fund in the second rescue package for Athens that could have indirectly cost Britain up to €1 billion. But Mr van Rompuy said after a debate on Greece by European leaders over dinner that the fund was “not part of the package”, says the Times.

Ladbrokes has made a play for sports betting firm Sportingbet as it seeks to beef up its online presence in overseas markets. Two months after abandoning its pursuit of online poker and casino group 888, the UK bookmaking giant said it had held “highly preliminary” talks with Sportingbet, which has market leading positions in Spain and Greece and has benefited from the growing popularity of “in-play” betting. Sportingbet shares shot up 6¾p to 49¼p, the Express reports.

Prada defied expectations on Friday to make its public trading debut without conceding its listing price, as shares in the Italian luxury brand benefited from a timely recovery in the broader Hong Kong market. The shares touched HK$40 in early trading, up 1.3 per cent from the initial public offering price of HK$39.50, despite indications from the pre-trading grey market that they would start trading in negative territory, according to the Financial Times.

Saab is on the brink of insolvency after the Swedish carmaker admitted that it cannot pay the wages and salaries of its 3,700 employees. Losses that were sustainable under previous owner General Motors are on the verge of overwhelming Saab's Dutch parent, Swedish Automobile, which was forced to stop salary payments for 1,500 factory workers, writes the Guardian.

Habitat is being broken up and the bulk of its UK business could be placed into administration as early as today. Argos owner Home Retail Group has offered between £20m and £30m to buy parts of the household furnishings chain’s underperforming UK business, while Habitat’s international business has also been put on the block, reports the Daily Mail.