RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

      11th September 2012

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 ends flat at 5792.19 after a choppy session. Expectations that the German constitutional court will rule in favor of the ESM and hopes of further QE by the Fed kept the index afloat. Burberry suffered hefty losses, though, down 22% after an unexpected trading update and profit warning.

With shares in Burberry sinking by more than a fifth after a profit warning, the personal goods sector was steeply lower on Tuesday afternoon. Shares were down around 22% after the iconic British fashion house said profits would be at the lower end of expectations this year. The firm is now taking steps to cut costs and maintain short-term profitability. Burberry said that trading conditions were becoming more challenging with like-for-like sales flat in the second quarter. While most brokers today reiterated their positive longer-term stances on the business today, they chose to downgrade their ratings on the stock, citing limited near-term visibility. Nomura, Seymour Pierce and Investec all cut their 'buy' recommendations for the shares today to adopt a more cautious view.

Posh handbag maker Mulberry fell lower in sympathy, as the personal goods sector as a whole sank over nearly 18%.

Bucking the trend was SuperGroup, the AIM-listed owner of the Superdry clothing brand, which jumped over 8% after saying that group sales increased by 10% in the first quarter. The firm said that while trading conditions remain volatile, it is confident of meeting its financial objectives.

Miners were firmly out of favour as risk appetite waned with Vedanta, Anglo American, Fresnillo, Antofagasta and Kazakhmys all taking a hit.

Meanwhile, RBS was heading higher after US broker JP Morgan Cazenove gave the stock a positve write-up, saying it believes RBS "now offers better value" than Lloyds.

Spread betting firm IG Group rose strongly after first-quarter revenues came in line with expectations, though they were still 18% down year-on-year due to a tough comparative.

Oxford Instruments, the high-tech tools and systems provider, was lower after it reported order intake from its research markets remains good, but there has been some softness in its industrial markets.

THE FTSE 100             closed         Down    1       @      5,792 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00        Up        80      @     13335 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00        Up        8      @ 3112

GBP – USD        @      17:00     1.6070                GBP - EURO      @      17:00     1.2498