RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 11th October 2012

      Evening Report

The FTSE 100 ends up 0.9% at 5829.75, with Burberry leading the gains. Better-than- expected US initial jobless claims also helped overall sentiment.

Shares in Burberry, the luxury fashion chain, leapt on today, after it said its situation had started to improve towards the end of the July-September quarter, during which time sales growth in its stores slowed dramatically, as expected.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was on the up after it priced Direct Line at 175p a share, valuing the insurance firm at over £2.6bn. The offer comprises 450m existing shares, representing 30% of the 1.5bn total, raising RBS £787m. The flotation price is in the bottom half of the indicated range of between 160p and 195p a share. As well, in general, banks are receiving a bid after reports of speculation that the implementation of Basel capital rules could be delayed.

Miners were generally higher as investors turned to risk. ENRC, Kazakhmys, and Vedanta were all higher by late afternoon.

Meanwhile, leading the fallers was supermarket chain Morrisons after Credit Suissee downgraded to a neutral stance, having previously expecting the shares to out-perform. Market research from Kantar Worldpanel suggests Morrisons has not regained its mojo after a mediocre first half of the year.

GlaxoSmithKline shares were hit by the news the company is to divulge data from a number of its clinical trials to other researchers. The company is taking the step to put an end to the speculation that the industry is hiding secrets and to prompt other companies to do the same in order to further drug research.

Smith & Nephew continued to fall after Wednesday's news that the medical equipment group was the subject of a sell note from Societe Generale. The shares are also trading ex dividend.

Rangers Football Club, the Scottish team that has spent the last two years in financial disarray, has announced plans to float on London's junior stock exchange in a listing led by investment bank Cenkos. Rangers is set to raise up to GBP20 million via an initial public offering on the Alternative Investment Market, according to an announcement today on the London Stock Exchange. The proceeds "will be used for strengthening the player squad, improving and developing the club's properties and facilities.

THE FTSE 100             Closed            Up       53    @      5829 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00           Up       24    @     13369 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00           Up       8     @      3060











Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @       17:00                     1.6031 GBP - EURO      @       17:00                     1.2394

Gold USD/Oz                            $1,767