Morning Market, Monday 9th June 2008

The FTSE was up about 15 points this morning at 5,920, whilst the FTSE 250 was up 3 points at 9,838. Th strength comes from the heavyweight oil companies, as the FTSE is weighted in their direction and oil jumped to a record high again.

It was a poor day on Friday over the pond, where the DJI closed down nearly 395 poinbts at 12,209.81, whilst the S&P500 closed down over 43 points at 1,360.68, and the Nasdaq down over 75 points at 2,474.56.  All three down about 3% on the day, which is the largest fall in well over a year. News in the US that it was the biggest gain in the government’s unemployment figure for more than 20 years didn’t go down well, and then add to that the leap to almost US$140 bbl in oil price, one can see why the Dow tumpled.  US$11 rise for a barrel is a significantr jump for one day, and up to a new record is rather concerning. Recent hopes that things were turning for the better were obviously very premature.  Morgan Stanley now reckons we can see US$150 bbl by 4th July, so whether thge US still celebrates as much on their independence day we’ll have to see.

In the Far East this morning the Nikkei 225 closed down 308 points at 14,181.38, whilst in Hong Kong they were having a greather for a public holiday.  Just as well.

Staying in Asia, oil trading showed that $11 had been a too bigger jump for one day, as oil prices fell back to about US$137.70 bbl.

Back here in London, as mentioned above it was the oilers that were on the up. BP up 10p to 591p, RD Shell up 32p to 2,087p, BG Group up 14p to 1,270p, Cairn Energy up 35p at 3,340p, Dana Petroleum up 55p at 1,884p, Venture Production up 26p at 921p, and Premier Oil was up 44p at 1,698p. Petrofac, the oil services firm, was up 40p at 678p after a UBS upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ by UBS.

British Energy was also doing well, up 6p to 741p after weekend press reports suggested France’s EDF was looking and sniffing with a £10 bln bid. Peer International Power was up 5p to 442p, and National Grid up 7p at 710p.

On to tobacco, where Imperial Tobacco was up 23p at 1,972, and peer British American Tobacco was up 13po at 1,865p.

On to the fallers, where obviously those using fuel took a hit.  British Airways was down 8p at 225.5p, whilst easyJet was down 10p at 297.5p, and cruise operator Carnival was down 28p at 1,816p.

On to the City, where our very own London Stock Exchange (LSE:LSE) feell nearly 20p to 895p as concenrs over the markets grew, whilst ICAP was down 6p at 597.5p, and SChroders was down nearly 20p at 895p.

On to the banks, where HBOS was down 6p at 328p, Lloyds TSB down 5p at 363p, and Barclays was down 3p at 334p. Barclays were a subject of weekend press reports that
the bank is looking for some £3 bln in casgh input to bolsetr its books from some foreign institutions.

On to the high street, where Marks & Sparks was down 7p at 372p, Kingfisher down 1.3p at 132.7p, and DSG Intnl was down 2p at 60.5p after a Goldman Sachs downgrade to ’sell’ from ‘neutral’.