The FTSE 100 Report

FTSE 100 shows it has fight as it moves into the green, eyes remain fixed on Friday's euro summit

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Category: The FTSE 100 Report

Published on Tuesday, 06 December 2011 11:12

Written by Sam Coventry

The FTSE 100 makes tentative gains dispelling the negative news issued by S&P.

The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) is 0.11% higher at 5,574.20 at 11AM in London.

The FTSE 100 was initially called to open lower this morning following the weakness overnight in Asia after S&P warned that 15 of the euro zone's 17 countries including France and Germany faced credit downgrades if political leaders did not resolve the region's debt situation.




A morning note on the FTSE 100 from SVS Securities says:

"This news overshadowed the Franco-German initiative announced earlier in the day on tighter fiscal controls which will be discussed at the European summit on Friday.

"Overnight we had domestic economic news showing that UK retail sales fell in November because non-food declined due to the mild weather and weak consumer confidence.

"The BRC survey showed that same store sales fell 1.6% on the year although total sales were up 0.7% over the same period. We have the Halifax house price index survey due out at 8.00am followed by European and US figures later in the session (see below). The euro was lower against the dollar after the S&P news with commodity prices in the main also weaker."

On the corporate front we see Wolseley Q1 Results saw revenue in the 3 months to end October up 5% at £3.6bn with trading profit ahead 16% at £185m. It added that strong growth in the US had offset lower growth in some of its European businesses and given the continuing macro-economic uncertainty, trading conditions may get tougher in the coming months.

Xstrata Underground Mining Update. It has successfully started underground mining at the Ernest Henry operation in north-west Queensland, Australia marking the shift from open pit to underground mining and magnetite processing.

Anglo American Project Approval. It has approved its Grosvenor metallurgical coal project in the Bowen Basin of Queensland, Australia.