RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

13th August 2012 Evening Report

The FTSE 100 finished 0.3% lower at 5831.88. Volumes have been low. Disappointing Japan GDP figures for 2Q hurt sentiment and dented last week's rally in equities.

Petrofac finished as the biggest FTSE 100 faller, ending 5.5% lower after confirming that several contracts expected in 2H won't now be awarded until 2013.

Leading investors in Barclays are backing Stephen Hester to succeed Robert Diamond as the new chief executive, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

U.K.-listed oil giant BP says it has agreed to sell its Carson refinery in southern California and related marketing assets to Tesoro for $2.5 billion, as part of its $38 billion asset-sale plan. Tesoro shares up 5%.

Google is cutting about 20% of Motorola Mobility's work force, a move the phone maker says is designed to return its mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in 14 of the past 16 quarters.

Standard Chartered agreed to a demand from the New York Department of Financial Services that it hire an outside monitor to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering laws, Bloomberg News reports.

Costa Coffee-owner Whitbread was also among the blue-chip fallers after analysts at Deutsche Bank cut their recommendation on the stock to "hold" from "buy" following a strong run from the shares, which have climbed 36pc this year.

THE FTSE 100             closed         Down      15       @      5,831 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00        Down      80       @     13127 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00        Down     14       @      3005

Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @      17:00        1.5687 GBP - EURO      @      17:00        1.2713