Greater London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/01/2010 -- Joshua Raymond, Market Strategist, City Index (http://www.cityindex.co.uk) commented:

“European shares surged on Monday as investors hunted commodity related stocks after the weekends G20 meeting failed to outline exactly what measures countries must adopt to stop competitive currency devaluations. As a result, traders continued to sell out of the US Dollar this morning, forcing the prices of Nymex Crude Oil, gold and copper all higher, which spurred strong demand for heavyweight mining and energy stocks helping to push the FTSE and other European Indices higher by 0.6%-0.8%.

Traders are seeing the weekends G20 statement on preventing currency devaluations as nothing more than hot air. Without a set of public guidelines it is hard to see traders convinced that member states will put an end to the manipulation of their own currencies to maintain healthy export demand. The calls from the US in particularly have been viewed by some in the market as rather hypocritical particularly considering the much publicised clues the Fed have given the market lately that they will announced a second round of quantitative easing next week, which in itself is keeping the dollar weak. For now therefore, the trend of dollar selling is still very much intact.

Miners charge the FTSE higher on weak dollar
As the trend of dollar selling is still firmly intact, this has meant the bullish miner’s trend remains intact also, which is helping to underpin gains in European Indices. The mining sector in London is higher by some 2.7%, charged firmly by string gains in miners Antofagasta, Kazakhmys and Xstrata. Indeed it is hard to see a company outside of the mining sector in the top 10 rising stocks on the FTSE 100 today. The sector itself is only a little over 1% away from hitting a new 27 month high and this just reaffirms how much of the recent FTSE’s strength has been driven by commodity related stocks.

Economic data and Bernanke speech eyed
Indices are set to remain particularly sensitive to economic data this week with Existing Homes Sales from the US set to be announced later this afternoon, whilst the first reading of Q3 UK GDP tomorrow will be watched intensely by traders. A speech by Ben Bernanke, the Fed Chairman, this afternoon will also be viewed by many market participants looking for clues as to the scale of next week’s anticipated announcement by the Fed of further asset purchases or ‘QE2’.

Lloyds falls on Credit Suisse price target cut
On the downside, Lloyds Banking Group shares have slumped 2.2%, making it the worst performing stock on the FTSE 100 today after investment bank Credit Suisse cut its price target on the shares. The bank cut its price target 9% to 79p citing the potential negative effect from falling property prices on revenues whilst near term capital return is viewed as limited.”

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