Morning all.

LONDON (AFX) - Leading shares are tipped to open the session lower, mirroring falls on Wall Street overnight, as a lack of news prompts investors to cash in profits in the run up to Christmas, dealers said.

Spread bettors CMC Markets expect the FTSE 100 index to open 19 points lower at around 5520, having closed yesterday 8.2 points firmer at 5539.8.



MARKETS

FTSE 100 5,539.8, up 8.2

FTSE 250 8,594.3, up 19.5

DJIA 10,836.50, down 39.10

Nasdaq Comp 2,222.74, down 29.74

S&P 500 1,259.90, down 7.40

Tokyo: Nikkei closed at 15,641.26, up 249.78

Hang Seng midday 15,159.33, down 23.56

Gold 507.10 usd (504.95 usd)

Oil - Brent Jan 56.11 usd (57.13 usd)



TODAY'S PRESS

RENTOKIL INITIAL freezes its pensions to plug gap; plan to close final salary scheme to current staff - FT

* IMF warns Brown on health of public finances - FT

* Estate agents report today that house prices have started to rise again after 15 months in the doldrums - FT



PRESS COMMENT

FT

BAA (BAA argues that shareholders must look to the long term to see the (Budapest) deal's justification, and that by 2020 it will own the equivalent of another London Gatwick, but without the regulation; the question is, how far into the future must they gaze?), Upstream energy (as more companies pile back into their old haunts, the resulting cost inflation will also erode the advantage in unit profitability), Chinese banks, Equity issuance (for now, equity does not look like an endangered species - unlike those investors who buy into the myth), UNILEVER/pensions pooling (pooling is of less direct help with asset allocation decisions, which determine the bulk of performance), NTL/TELEWEST (a private equity bid appears to make little sense, although, in today's climate, that is not necessarily an impediment)

Mail

KENSINGTON (a bid approach well north of 9 stg a share is believed to be a possibility early in the New Year), PARAGON (speculation that BRADFORD & BINGLEY is considering launching a bid), NETTWORX (floats on AIM tomorrow)

Express

SHARE WHISPER: SSL INTERNATIONAL (gossips reckon RENTOKIL INITIAL is eyeing up SSL

Mirror

BUY! BUY! SELL! SELL! Henk Potts says ENTERPRISE INNS look cheap

Guardian

FUTURE INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES (belief in the City is that controversial financier Robert Bonnier is seeking to broker a deal with an American communications company)

Independent

THE INVESTMENT COLUMN: BSKYB (buy), NATIONAL EXPRESS (to high), MCCARTHY & STONE (a solid hold)

Times

Directors' dealings: TRIBAL GROUP (chief executive sells stock for 130,927 stg) - TEMPUS: BG (hold), DAIRY CREST (worth buying), WICHFORD (buy)

Telegraph

QUESTOR: BG (buy), JOHN WOOD (hold), UNITE (worth hanging on to)

Morning All,

I haven't had a dig MB, but seen anymore regarding SOM?

Stan,just had a quick look and nothing new.

Thanks MB,
Only thing out this morning is the 4 sites they have bought off of Morrisons, but can't be that I would have thought....Oh well just watch with Interest.

Good morning all - less than a week to go :-)

Midday Market Summary

Good afternoon all ;-)

End-of-day Market Summary