Morning All,

China shares slide; central bank relaxes grip on money market

SHANGHAI | Tue Jun 25, 2013 7:12am BST
(Reuters) - Chinese stocks extended losses to more than 10 percent this week as investors worried about banks' ability to access cash after a week-long squeeze in money markets, even as the central bank relaxed its tight grip to let interest rates fall.

Reports of outages at cash machines of some banks added to the sense of fear in markets, with the index of financial stocks on the Shanghai exchange falling more than 5 percent on Tuesday morning after a 7.3 percent plunge on Monday.

Nikkei falls below 13,000 in volatile trade on China worries

Tue Jun 25, 2013 7:10am BST
TOKYO, June 25 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average fell
below 13,000 in volatile trade on Tuesday as worry about
stresses in China's banking system reignited investors' fears,
while ongoing concern about the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to
scale back its stimulus continued to hurt appetites.

The Nikkei dropped 0.7 percent to 12,969.34 after
rising as much as 1.3 percent and falling 2.3 percent at one
point.

The Topix shed 1.0 percent to 1,078.66.

European stock index futures signal higher open

LONDON, June 25 | Tue Jun 25, 2013 7:05am BST
(Reuters) - European shares were set to pare recent steep losses on Tuesday, with investors seeking value in some battered stocks, although equities remained vulnerable to concerns about U.S. stimulus and China's banking sector.

At 0602 GMT, futures for Euro STOXX 50, UK's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC were 0.3 to 0.5 percent.

The market is also expected to recover on technical buying, with major stock indexes seen bouncing back from "oversold" levels.

Quite a turnaround on the Hang Seng - currently up 110 points.

Skinny, any idea what time (our time) the Hang Seng closes?

8 am I think.

On edit or maybe 8:15 am :-)

Stan - its 9:15am - I forgot BST - Trading Hours

Thanks Skinny, might be worth knowing.

FTSE 100 opens higher as investors snap up miners

GBP BBA Mortgage Approvals 36.1K 33.1K 32.2K

FTSE chugs higher ahead of Wall Street opening

Mario speaks @1:15.

USD Core Durable Goods Orders m/m 0.7% 0.0% 1.5%

USD Durable Goods Orders m/m 3.6% 3.0% 3.5%

USD S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI y/y 12.1% 10.6% 10.9%

USD HPI m/m 0.7% 1.2% 1.3%

Still need accommodative ECB policy, OMT essential now: Draghi

BERLIN | Tue Jun 25, 2013 1:51pm BST
(Reuters) - An 'accommodative' monetary policy is still appropriate for the European Central Bank, whose OMT bond-buy plan is essential now as policy shifts elsewhere reverberate across the globe, ECB President Mario Draghi said.

In remarks prepared for delivery in Berlin, Draghi defended the bond-purchase plan - dubbed Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) - that he masterminded last year to head off the risk of a euro zone break-up, saying the bloc is more stable as a result.

"Indeed, I would say that OMT is even more essential now as we see potential changes in the monetary policy stance with associated uncertainty in other jurisdictions of the integrated global economy," he said in the speech for delivery on Tuesday.

FTSE tiptoes higher as investors return to market