LONDON (AFX) - Leading shares are tipped to start the session higher, reflecting a jump on Wall Street overnight, with the banking sector staying in the spotlight ahead of a trading update from Alliance & Leicester, dealers said.
Spread-betting firm CMC Markets expects the FTSE 100 to open 9 points firmer at around 5,495 having closed yesterday 62.9 points to the good at 5,486.1.

MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,486.1 up 62.9
FTSE 250 8,400.6 up 72.7
DJIA 10,912.57 up 106.7
Nasdaq Comp 2,267.17 up 34.35
S&P 500 1,264.67 up 15.19
Tokyo: Nikkei 15,421.60 up 291.10
Hang Seng midday 15,148.25 up 80.22
Gold 501.60 usd (495.20 usd)
Oil - Brent Jan 56.15 usd (55.05 usd)

TODAY'S PRESS
* Brown to seek 1 bln stg windfall from banks - The Times
* OFT uncovers evidence that bids for construction contracts worth 500 mln stg have been rigged and believes the scale of the anti-competitive practices could be much greater - Guardian
* TRINITY MIRROR to axe 750 as slump in advertising starts to bite - Independent
* ECB confirms rate increase; Bank president admits differences of opinion; rise aimed at securing price stability; uncertainty over future moves hits euro - FT
* Blair set to make 1 bln stg EU rebate climbdown - FT
* WHITBREAD looking at travel services business Select Service Partner, which is expected to fetch more than 1 bln stg when it is sold by COMPASS - FT
* COMPUTACENTER's founders, Sir Peter Ogden and Philip Hulme, offer to take the UK's biggest seller of personal computers to businesses private in a deal that would value it at almost 500 mln stg - FT
* COMPUTACENTER's independent directors rebuff a 255 pence-a-share takeover proposal from the company's founders and senior management - Telegraph
* World Health Organisation becomes the largest international employer to ban the hiring of smokers in an effort to promote its public health campaign against tobacco use - FT
* Up to 8,000 private shareholders in BPB will be left with a 25 mln stg capital gains tax bill if Saint-Gobain's 3.9 bln stg bid is approved today - Telegraph
* Thousands of landowners to be stung by a 3 bln stg windfall tax as part of a massive housebuilding programme to be announce by the chancellor on Monday - The Times

PRESS COMMENT
FT
THE LEX COLUMN comments on PUNCH/Spirit (Punch can feel pleased with its prize), Skandia/OLD MUTUAL (Old Mutual is determined to tough it out at the original price; it may, therefore, have to live with significant minorities well into next year and be unable to crystallise all the synergies), Oil taxes (Brown must recognise the UK's increasingly marginal status in a global industry), Restatements (the lack of market reaction to many restatements is a concern; as they become more numerous, they lose effectiveness as a signal for investors), Japanese banks (the banks can finally invest in expansion again, though their history on acquisitions is lamentable), Eurozone interest rates (in the short term, finance ministers must face a future of less easy money; with luck, this should compel them further down the path of structural reform)
Telegraph
QUESTOR: PUNCH TAVERNS (still worth buying), UNITED UTILITIES (remains a buy for the dividend and the hope of a better run ahead), HOLIDAYBREAK (long-term buy)
Mail
PILKINGTON (growing speculation of an imminent 2.23 bln stg, or 170 pence-a-share bid from Nippon Sheet Glass) - EVOLUTION (revived rumours of a bid in excess of 200 pence a share) - SUPERSCAPE (promised trading update has yet to see the light of day)
Times
Directors' dealing: CHARLES TAYLOR CONSULTING (deputy chairman sells stock for 585,000 stg) - Rumour of the day: BIOFUELS (followers hear trading in the shares is set to resume shortly as discussions with BARCLAYS, which is tipped to provide a 70 mln stg facility, near conclusion) - HOLIDAYBREAK (bid hopes) - TEMPUS: AWG/UNITED UTILITIES (at current prices, UU is the more obvious buy), CALEDONIA INVESTMENTS (buy), HARDMAN RESOURCES (buy)
Independent
THE INVESTMENT COLUMN: EASYJET (long-term buy), BREWIN DOLPHIN (buy), HOLIDAYBREAK (hold on for the income)
Express
SHARE WHISPER: ADVENTIS GROUP (talk its Affinity healthcare arm is about to win a contract with Roche) - INDAGO PETROLEUM (AIM debut today)

Investors Chronicle
LARGE COMPANY TIPS: ANGLO IRISH BANK (Buy), ST IVES (Sell), ARK THERAPEUTICS (Buy) -- SMALLER COMPANIES: CENTURION ENERGY (Buy), CLAPHAM HOUSE (Buy), ILX (Buy)

Morning all. "Brown to seek 1 bln from the Banks"!! - The Times - Didn't he get enough when he took 5 bln, by stealth, from the pension funds affecting every single person in this country who has a pension fund.!! That will be YOU & ME.

Morning all,

Druid2,
Before going to sleep last night, I was listing for about 10min to a discussion program with Germaine Greer, an ex cons. mp (can't remember his name!) and Diane Abbott and they were discussing Pensions.

Diane Abbott (Labour MP) made a comment - something to the effect of that "Brown was scared that if he tried to help poorer people, he could make rich people richer!"

lw - agreed - He has helped richer people by bringing out the Stakeholder Pension - It was meant for poorer people but it apears that they have not taken it up. The richer people have opened stakeholder pensions for their children, grandchildren and, if they could, would have taken out stakeholder pensions for their pets!!. I think that the general population themselves are to blame for some of the problems because many don't bother to start pension policies when they are young and many don't bother at all - when they retire they expect the state to help them out then and that means YOU & ME. The 5 bln he has taken is from all pension savers, rich and poor, and again that is YOU & ME.

Yes I agree.

Although I started a my first pension when I was 21, I was extremely disappointed with the returns (hence why I'm really pro Sipps). And of course, like you say Brown has not helped.

What worries me, is how "we" are going to made to pay for the shortfall on the public sector pensions!

Agreed.

SHOOT ALL THE MP.S AND D1 CIVILSERVANTS////equal NO SHORTFALL IN PUDLIC SECTOR PENSIONS//as i told my son how he could improve his pension for later life I SAID ONLY ONE WAY BECOME A MP///

Well said bristlelad!

You'd think we'd all realise what was going on. The trouble is very few of the general public really understand any of it - and rather than learn and do something, they bury thier heads in the sand.

So the few can't make the difference and end up doing the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em"!

Usual short-termism in this country has contributed considerably to the problem, but it is not just a governmental phenomenon. The pension industry, I seem to recall, in the good times, allowed 'pension holidays', reducing fund pots for the leaner years in the cycle and now causing misery for the many.

Funny that you never hear of any entity or individual contacting the FS Ombudsman or trawling through the High Court when their pension fund has outperformed or their endowment has issued an extra large terminal bonus for them.

The system has failed to cover the troughs in the cycle during the peaks and government has failed to monitor,adjust and tweak the system to reduce the amplitude of the peaks and troughs, which would have afforded greater certainty for all parties concerned, especially 'Honest Joe' (and Josie) in society. (IMHO)

Nam

Thanks to all the contributors today. Very interesting.