Good evening all,

Not much time to post, but do try to find the time to read most of the posts. So all the posts made are appreciated - thanks to you all for keeping me informed about what may or not be going on. ;-)

Good morning traderrs!

Markets in Japan and Hong Kong are closed today for holidays. Other Asian markets were generally positive with Australia heading for a record closing high.

Oil prices rose in Asian trading hours, despite hopes that OPEC will boost crude production. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, was up 71 cents at $63.71 a barrel from its close of $63.00 in the US on Friday.

Early boker notes :-

Imperial Tobacco raised to 'overweight' vs 'neutral' at JP Morgan

GUS CUT TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'BUY' AT UBS

REDROW CUT TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'BUY' AT UBS

Happy trading!

G.

LONDON (AFX) - LogicaCMG PLC, the Anglo-Dutch IT services group, is today expected to announce a 400 mln stg rights issue to help finance its planned 630 mln stg acquisition of French rival Unilog, the Financial Times reported.
According to the newspaper the rights issue will be on a two-for-one basis and will be subject to an investors' vote in mid-October.
It said should the rights issue be approved, LogicaCMG will formally launch its bid for Unilog in early November with the aim of completing the transaction by the end of the year.
On Friday LogicaCMG said it was in advanced talks with Unilog which may lead to an agreed offer of 73 eur per share.

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DEUTSCHE POST OFFERS 5.5 BLN EUR FOR EXEL

LONDON (AFX) - Leading shares are expected to edge higher in opening trade, following a strong session on Wall Street Friday during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average received a lift from broker upgrades of Intel Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp.
According to IG Index, the FTSE 100 will open 2 points higher at 5,410, having closed on Friday at 5,407.9.

MARKETS
Tokyo: Nikkei midday closed
Hang Seng midday closed

TODAY'S PRESS
* Election deadlock in Germany; chancellor and challenger both claim victory; Schroeder rules out working under Merkel's leadership; euro falls on fears that reforms will stall - FT
* Deutsche Post will today unveil a 3.7 bln stg agreed takeover of EXEL - FT
* Rate cuts predicted if growth in UK falls short - FT
* J SAINSBURY will today unveil one of the biggest makeovers in its history, designed to help the supermarket group achieve its ambitious target of adding 2.5 bln stg to annual sales within the next three years - Independent

PRESS COMMENT
FT
THE LEX COLUMN comments on German elections (whoever consolidates power in Berlin must commit rapidly to further bold reform, or risk seeing Germany sink back into gridlock), Oracle/SAP (assuming the US group's acquisition spree is largely over, the German group should grow faster), Measuring leverage (best alternative may still be interest cover)
Express
Hilary Cook, director of investment strategy at Barclays Stockbrokers, tips BSKYB
Independent
Small Talk: ROBERT W BAIRD and BRIDGEWELL SECURITIES rumoured to be considering a merger, INFLEXION (look a interesting punt), FAIRGROUND GAMING (coming to AIM), IP2IPO (GETECH float delayed), SPI LASERS (coming to AIM)

Midday Market Wrap

Put a spreadbet on, based on your LLOY chart supermum. Positive so far today. Resistence at 472.
F

End of day market wrap