Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning up 102.45 points at 18,089.42, while the Nikkei was up 50.97 points at 16,602.33 at the midpoint.

Oil prices jumped after OPEC sprung a surprise production cut of 1.2 mln barrels a day, bigger than what the market was expecting.

Crude oil was quoted at $59.20 usd per barrel, up 70 cents from its $58.50 closing overnight in New York.

Early broker notes:
GALLAHER STARTED 'NEUTRAL' AT MERRILL LYNCH; PRICE TARGET 908P
BAT, IMPERIAL TOBACCO STARTED 'NEUTRAL' AT MERRILL LYNCH
AVIS EUROPE STARTED 'NEUTRAL' AT JP MORGAN, PRICE TARGET 69P

Happy Friday!

G.

WHEN WILL NIKKEI GET TO 40,000?

TATA WILL RELEASE STATEMENT REGARDING CORUS BID AT 7 AM - INDUSTRY SOURCES

Hi All, not been by lately, been busy selling my mothers house.

Now I'm really angry - the Agent - Mann & Co have told the solicitor we agreed to a fixed fee - whereas I understood we would pay 1.5% of the selling price.

The fixed fee is based on 1.5% of the initial sale price - it sold for 10% less - they tried to get us to sell at 20% less, but we refused, and the buyer increased the offer and we accepted.

As anyone else come across this - or are they trying it on?

Midday Market Roundup

you should always HAVE these things in A WRITEN CONTACT///NOTHING ELSE COUNT WHERE MONEY YOUR MONEY IS CONCERN///END OF LESSON/////SORRY/

Bristle - I thought we did

- I understood that the amount shown (as per the ombudsmans guidelines) was the actual amount plus VAT, and the amount shown was an illustration based on the asking price of the property

- not a fixed fee as the agent is insisting.

End-of-day Market Roundup

Have a great weekend everybody!

Back after an absence of 2 years or so. Was tonyjackson then. Seems to have gone quiet in here. Is Ruth still about? Glad to see you still exceeding devotion above and beyond the call of duty Greystone.