By Michael Taylor
LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 <> of Britain's
leading shares was flat on Monday as property and oil stocks
supported but jitters remained over the U.S. economy.
At 1203 GMT the blue-chip index was up 3.0 points, or 0.1
percent at 6,205.0 during a quiet but choppy session.
U.S. stock futures pointed higher, but Friday's fall of
almost 2 percent on Wall Street, which came after a warning by
American Express Co <AXP.N> on mounting credit-card defaults and
a slowdown in consumer spending, weighed.
Among leading UK shares, property stocks bounced strongly
from near their lowest levels in 32 months on weekend news that
UK hedge fund Laxey Partners wants to raise 1 billion pounds
($1.96 billion) in debt and equity for a new fund to invest in
the sector, traders said.
The FTSE 350 real estate index <.FTNMX8730> was up 4.6
percent, led up sector heavyweights Land Securities <LAND.L>,
British Land <BLND.L>, Hammerson <HMSO.L> and Liberty <LII.L>,
which rose between 4 and 5.9 percent each.
In commodities, U.S. crude <CLc1> steadied above $93 a
barrel after three sessions of losses, as violence in Nigeria
and tension in Iran countered worries of economic downturn in
the United States.
Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> gained 1.4 percent and rival BP
<BP.L> added 0.4 percent. Tullow Oil <TLW.L> climbed 1.8 percent
after Deutsche Bank upped its price target to 810 pence from 725
pence.
"There's not a great deal to go on today," said Hargreaves
Lansdown analyst Richard Hunter. "(But) I certainly get the
impression that there's a great deal of nervousness about at the
moment."
"Even though we're nudging up ... The question really now is
... how much of that bad news is factored into share prices."
"We might get some pointers this week from a couple of U.S.
banks in terms of the ongoing jitters there ... In the UK we're
going be looking at the retailers (reporting)."
Monday is a relatively quiet day on the corporate and
economic calendar, but as the week goes by investors will eye
numbers from Citigroup <C.N> and Merrill Lynch <MER.N>, plus
producer and consumer prices and retail sales data. The Federal
Reserve also issues its Beige book on Wednesday.
BID BREWING
Scottish & Newcastle <SCTN.L> tacked on 0.1 percent after
the Sunday Times said U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch <BUD.N> has
approached the company about helping it in any bid for full
control of Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) and after the brewer
said its expectations for 2007 results were unchanged.
S&N rejected an improved 780 pence a share joint bid
proposal from Carlsberg <CARLb.CO> and Heineken <HEIN.AS> last
week but said it would engage in talks if the price was lifted
to 800 pence a share.
On the downside, Tesco <TSCO.L> dipped 2.6 percent after
Morgan Stanley cut its rating to "underweight" from
"overweight".
The Financial Times also reported that Wal-Mart <WMT.N> will
open small-format grocery stores in Arizona this year, going
head to head with the Fresh & Easy markets being rolled out by
Tesco.
In other news, news and information groups Reuters Group
<RTR.L> and Thomson Corp <TOC.TO> said they expect Thomson's
proposed acquisition of the British-based group will close early
in the second quarter of 2008. See [].
ABN AMRO also cut its rating on Reuters stock to "sell" from
"hold" and trimmed its price target to 550 pence from 675 pence.
Reuters shares slipped 2 percent.
Vodafone <VOD.L> fell 1 percent after Credit Suisse
downgraded the European telecoms sector to "market weight" from
"overweight".
Also in the red, Shire <SHP.L> fell 2.3 percent after
Merrill Lynch downgraded its rating to "neutral" from "buy".
Merrill said it is cautious on the European pharmaceutical
sector as there is a lack of fundamental backing for further
share price gains on drugmakers.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau and Rebekah Curtis;
Editing by Quentin Bryar)
