BetOnMarkets Afternoon Update

The FTSE has managed to hold on to most of the morning's gains, which
were largely a factor of the strong close in New York on Friday. A
relatively quiet economic calendar and low summer volume have muted
activity after last week's impressive action. Banking stocks are
performing well in the UK, with Barclays, RBS and Lloyds all putting
further distance between themselves and the July lows. Investors are
impressed that the banking sector has still been able to maintain strong
earnings in the retail sector, despite the ongoing credit problems many
are facing. In the US retail stocks are performing well with online
giant Amazon leading the way.

While the developing conflict is Georgia is grabbing the headlines, so
far both equity and foreign exchange markets remain largely unaffected.
After an early pull back, the Dollar is back to the unchanged mark
against the Euro and Pound while commodities such as oil have barely
moved since the conflict began. While pipelines have been developed
across the Georgia to help connect the energy wealth to the West, they
still only account for around 1% of the global market.

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