A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

There is a much more active time in prospect this week with a busy reporting schedule, the Bank of England's decision on interest rates, and the latest changes to the FTSE100 to consider. Stocks likely to be promoted to the top flight when their market capitalisations are calculated on Tuesday evening include life insurance and asset management group Resolution and its peer Standard Life, which hit a record high of 269p last Friday. One financial services stock definitely getting promoted is Bradford & Bingley, which lost its place in September 2004 but will now take the spot vacated by BOC, now owned by Linde of Germany. Companies that look set for demotion next week include Cable & Wireless, Schroders and Rentokil Initial. The US market will be closed tomorrow for the Labor Day holiday, but will be closely watched later in the week when the Federal Reserve's Beige Book is released. The data gives a pointer to the outlook for American growth. Tobacco group Gallaher, reports first-half results on Wednesday. Charles Stanley has maintained its buy rating on the stock and said the company could be in the sights of bigger players such as Japan Tobacco or British American Tobacco as the sector consolidates. Online gambling group PartyGaming should enjoy a strong hand despite regulatory issues in the US. Dresdner Kleinwort said it was unlikely that legislation aimed at banning the use of credit cards to pay for bets on the web would pass through the US Congress, because there is "neither sufficient time nor political support". They added that PartyGaming reported strong Q2 revenue of $319.3m, so there will be few surprises in Thursday's numbers. Instead, most investors will want to hear more about the company's margins. It is thought that, before costs, they could be as high as 56.8%. Airlines will stay in the headlines this week with British Airways due to report its most recent traffic statistics on Tuesday and easyJet delivering on Thursday. Amongst others in the spotlight this week are :- Pace Micro on Monday; Cairn Energy on Tuesday; Wilson Bowden and AB Ports on Wednesday; Arriva and Pipex on Thursday; and JD Wetherspon on Friday. Looks like being a week of frantic activity. Let's hope volumes recover and volatility returns. Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.) PS - Supermum is taking a break this weekend........

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning up 95.76 points at 17,519.48, while the Nikkei was recently at 16,379.06, up 244.81 points.

Early broker notes:

WELLINGTON UNDERWRITING CUT TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'OUTPERFORM' AT CREDIT SUISSE

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all.

Morning all.

Midday Market Roundup

Good afternoon all

LUNCH TIME FUN

UPS (Added by Master RSI on Mon 04 Sep 02:09 pm)

WNDR - Mid 40.75p
Reason -Second face of the rise from the lows lately, some buying going on today with MMs rising prices on increased volume, indicators on the rise from oversold, well undervalued co. with a high dividend

WNDR was further up after the selection

VLR 40 - 44p +7p
has been doing very well today, results tomorrow

        JOKE OF THE DAY

Jail Food
The warden, addressing the three instigators
of a failed prison riot,
said, "I would like to know two things.
First: Why did you revolt?
Second: How did you get out of your cell?"

One of the three men stepped forward,
"Warden, we rebelled because the food is awful."

"I see. And what did you use to break the bars?"
The warden asked.

Replied the spokesman, "French Toast..."

End-of-day Market Roundup