RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 31st  August 2012

      Morning Report

FTSE 100 nudges into the black, up 0.2%, with heavily-weighted miners and resource based stocks leading the gains. Investor attention remains fixed on what will be said by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke later in the session.

Mining stocks were making gains this morning, rebounding after bearing the brunt of 'risk-off' trade over the past few days. Kazakhmys, Vedanta, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Randgold, Polymetal, Fresnillo, Anglo American and ENRC were among the top risers on the FTSE 100 in the opening hour.

Heading the other way was media giant WPP which was extending its losses after having to scale back its full-year like-for-like revenue target yesterday. Societe Generale and Berenberg both reduced their target prices for the stock this morning.

Financial stocks were also unwanted early on with Royal Bank of Scotland, Hargreaves Lansdown, Barclays, Lloyds and Standard Chartered all suffering.

Utilities group SSE was making gains after UBS upgraded its rating for the stock from 'neutral' to 'buy' and hiked its target price by 13% to 1,515p.

House-builder Redrow was in demand after saying that three investment firms are interested in a takeover, one of which is controlled by the company's Chairman and well-known businessman, Steve Morgan.  While the offer of 152p a share represents a 23.8% premium to the 90-day average share price, the stock has risen strongly in recent weeks on speculation, closing yesterday at 151p.

First-half profits at restaurant and pub operator Restaurant Group came in slightly ahead of expectations, helping the firm to raised its interim dividend by an eighth. Shares edged higher from the off.

Information technology solutions provider Computacenter dropped after reporting a slight fall in profits in the first half as additional start-up costs dented the bottom line.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00        Up               13          @    5,733 THE DOW JONES            closed          Down             106         @     13000 THE NASDAQ               closed          Down             32         @      3048

Exchange Rates     GBP - USD @      10:00                1.5822 GBP - EURO      @      10:00                1.2609