RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
13th August 2012
Morning Report
The FTSE 100 is trading slightly down in early trade. Petrofac continues to lead the
downside following a disappointing set of 1H results. Miners also weigh, with Vedanta,
Kazakhmys and Eurasian Natural Resources adrift as disappointing Chinese trade data for
July continue to weigh. Meanwhile, Whitbread is off following a rating downgrade.
Shares in oilfield services firm Petrofac dropped despite reporting a strong first half,
driven by growth across all its markets. Earnings per share were up 32% to 94.8c, with
pre-tax profits rising to $412.5m, from $300m the year before.
Oil giant BP was slightly lower after announcing the sale of its Sunray and Hemphill
gas processing plants in Texas for $227.5m.
Resource peers Vedanta, Xstrata and Kazakhyms were also out of favour due to concerns
over global economic growth. Meanwhile, Costa owner Whitbread snakes after Deutsche Bank
downgraded its rating on the stock to 'hold'.
Heading the other way was under-fire banking group Standard Chartered as it continues
to rebound from its recent falls. Shares were trading around the 1,345p mark this
morning, but still well off from the 1,567p level reached on August 3rd, the day before
it was revealed that the lender had engaged in illegal transactions with the Iranian government.
Recruitment firm Michael Page fell after its profits took a tumble as market conditions
worsened in the second quarter; things are not looking much brighter for the second half
of the 2012 either.
Outsourcing and energy services group MITIE was lower despite saying it has made a
'good start' to its financial year with 87% of budgeted revenues for the year having
already been secured.
THE FTSE 100 @ 10:00 Down 14 @ 5,832
THE DOW JONES closed Up 42 @ 13207
THE NASDAQ closed Up 2 @ 3020
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD @ 10:00 1.5667
GBP - EURO @ 10:00 1.2700
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