RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 17th September 2012

 Morning Report The FTSE 100 off 0.2% at 5901.77, remaining in the red, as investors book the healthy gains posted over the last couple of sessions. Mobile phone network titan Vodafone is lower after Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford told the Bloomberg news agency that the company may make a provision to cover legal risks associated with its fight to avoid a $2.2bn tax bill in India.

Royal Dutch Shell has suffered a setback on its Alaska drilling programme, with the containment dome aboard the Arctic Challenger barge sustaining damage during a final test of the containment system. The time required to repair the dome, along with steps taken to protect local whaling operations and to ensure the safety of operations from ice flow movement, have led the oil giant to revise its plans for the 2012-2013 exploration programme.

Reckitt Benckiser, the Anglo-Dutch household goods firm behind the Cillit Bang brand, has nabbed Adrian Hennah from medical technology business Smith & Nephew to be its new Chief Financial Officer. Hennah will get his feet under his new desk in 2013.

Anglo American Platinum - or Amplats - said it plans to reopen operations in Rustenburg after work was suspended last week to protect staff. The firm, which accounts for around 40% of global platinum supply, took the decision to stop operations in the area to protect the safety and security of its employees from "outside intimidation". Industrial relations in the South African mining sector remain on a knife edge a month after 44 people died during violent protests at Lonmin's Marikana project close to the Rustenburg area.

FTSE-250 oil and gas company Ophir Energy said that three results in its drilling programme in block R, Equatorial Guinea were better than expected, but share price reaction suggests investors beg to differ. All three wells drilled exceeded pre-drilling recoverable resource estimates, the Africa-focused company revealed.

THE FTSE 100             @ 10:00           Down      7        @      5908 THE DOW JONES            closed            Up       53        @     13593 THE NASDAQ               closed            Up       28        @      3183

Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @       10:00                   1.6227 GBP - EURO      @       10:00                   1.2385