RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

22nd  August 2012

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed 1.4% adrift at 5774.20, near to session lows, with mining stocks the main drag on the index. FOMC minutes are due for release at six o’clock.

Utility giant SSE made gains this afternoon, providing a lift to the electricity sector in London, after announcing that it has hiked its gas and electricity bills for customers. Prices for SSE's household customers in the UK are to increase on average by nine per cent for both electricity and gas from the middle of October. The company, which also trades as Scottish Hydro and Swalec, said five million electricity customers and 3.4 million gas customers would be affected by the hike.

Heading the other way were construction and materials stocks with FTSE 100 building materials distributor CRH registering losses after going ex-dividend.

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty fell after Oriel Securities reduced its target price for the stock from 365p to 351p.

Construction peers Kier and Galliford Try were also lower.

BHP Billiton fell after saying that weakness in commodity markets and industry-wide cost pressures resulted in earnings declining in the first half. The group also decided against spending up to $30bn on a uranium and copper mine extension in South Australia.

Analysts at JP Morgan have downgraded Anglo American to underweight from neutral. Labour unrest in South Africa's platinum belt spread on Wednesday, writes Reuters. More specifically, it cites how the world's top platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum, has said today that it has received a demand for a pay increase from its South African workers, while a trade union said miners at Royal Bafokeng Platinum's Rasimone site were blocked from reporting to work by colleagues.

Evraz, Fresnillo, Kazakhmys and Rio Tinto were also fallers, while ENRC was lower after going ex-dividend and being downgraded by both UBS and Citigroup to 'neutral'. Concerns over Chinese steel prices could also be weighing down on the sector.

THE FTSE 100             closed             Down       83        @      5,774 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00            Down       53        @     13150 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00            Down       5         @      3061 Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @      17:00                 1.5799 GBP - EURO      @      17:00                 1.2668