RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 23rd August 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is 0.3%, as investors welcomed the dovish tone of last night's FOMC minutes, which suggest the Fed is open to another round of quantitative easing. Mining stocks are the best performers.

Mining stocks ignored the gloomy economic figures from China early on to making strong gains on the hopes that policy-makers in the US will boost the world's largest economy. Evraz, Randgold, Fresnillo, Antofagasta and Vedanta jumped early on.

However, Kazakhmys bucked trend after seeing both revenues and earnings drop in the first half. Cash costs increased significantly during the period, leading the group to increase its cash cost guidance for the full year.

Engineering group IMI fell after saying that the first-half revenue growth of 6% would likely slow in the second half mainly due to the weakening economic conditions in Europe.

Sales and underlying earnings came in slightly ahead of market expectations at drinks brands leviathan Diageo, helping shares higher early on.

Newsagent chain WH Smith jumped after saying it expects results for the year to the end of August will be at the top end of market expectations as the group's Travel business improves margins.

AZ Electronic Materials, which produces chemicals for the electronics market, dropped after seeing profits fall in the first half.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00      Up           15          @      5789 THE DOW JONES            closed        Down         30          @     13172 THE NASDAQ               closed        Up           6           @      3073 Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @      10:00                 1.5890 GBP - EURO       @      10:00                 1.2665