RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 21st August 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 has climbed 26 points in early trade before a series of bilateral meetings between the euro area leaders that will try to calm the region’s sovereign debt crisis. Miners and Financials are leading the index higher.

Sector peers Vedanta, Fresnillo, Kazakhmys, ENRC and Polymetal were leading the risers in early trading today on hopes that a stronger Chinese economy would boost the demand for commodities. However, Xstrata was more or less flat this morning after Glencore's CEO said that the company would move on from their proposed merger if Xstrata shareholders blocked the deal.

Glencore's Ivan Glasenberg was speaking in an interview this morning following the release of the group's first-half results, which saw adjusted EBITDA slip 17% year-on-year due to falling commodity prices. Revenue still increased by 17% though.

Banking group Barclays was a high riser after announcing that it is looking at combining the majority of its operations in Africa with its subsidiary Absa Group, in line with its strategy to operate as 'One Bank' across the continent. Lending peers RBS and Lloyds were also in demand.

FTSE 250 oil group Heritage jumped after saying that it would sell Genel Energy its 26% interest in the production sharing contract relating to the Miran Block in Iraq.

Gem Diamonds, the Australia and Africa-focused minerals miner, fell after being forced to delay development projects at two of its operations as the falling price of diamonds has begun to bite.

THE FTSE 100             @ 10:00          Up            26      @      5,850 THE DOW JONES            closed           Down         3      @     13271 THE NASDAQ               closed           Flat                  @      3076 Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @      10:00              1.5765 GBP - EURO      @      10:00              1.2706