Morning Market, Tuesday 25th March 2008

The FTSE was up this morning, with the 100 up 179 points at 5,674.3 and the FTSE 250 up 281 poiints at 9729.4.

News that JP Morgan had raised its offer for the failed Bear Sterns from $2 to $10 was taken well.  The housing sales figures were also betterthan expected over there too. Not a bad Easter. As yetserday wasn’t a bank holiday in the US the markets were open.  The DJI closed up 187.32 points at 12,548.64, whilst the S&P500 closed up 20.37 points at 1,349.88, and the Nasdaq up 2,326.75.

In the Far East today they were follwing the States, with the Nikkei 225 closing up 265.13 points, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng recently closed up a healthy 1,356.3 points at 22,464.52.

Oil was falling back in Far East trade too, with Light Sweet (May del) now not much above US$100 bbl.  Brent (May del) is sub $100 bbl, trading at around US$99.4 bbl.

Back here in London this morning it was the banks that were doing well. With news that HBOS directors had been buying around £1.5m shares between them last week as a sign of belief (and opportunity?), HBOS was up 57p at 478 in early trading.  Peers were also doing well, with RBS up 29p at 350p, Barclays up nearly 50p at 478p, Alliance & Leicester up 50p at 588p and Lloyds TSB up 27p at 461.

Insurance was also doing well.  Aviva was up 35p at 626p, Standard Life up 15p at almost 250p, and the Pru was up 30p at 665p.

The housebuilders were also having a nice morning, mainly on the back of the US housing figures, with Persimmons up 45p at 744, Taylor Wimpey up 11p at 174.8, Barratts up 25p at 404p, Redrow up 22p at 292p, and Bovis Homes up 40p at 563p.

We expect further rises in the markets here in London today.