RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
8th August 2012
Morning Report
The FTSE 100 is down 0.3% at 5821.52, off starting lows. Much of the early FTSE weakness
was dictated by heavyweight stocks such as BP and Shell going ex-dividend. The focus is on
the Bank of England's Inflation Report due. Growth figures are expected to be revised lower.
Following a 16% slump yesterday, emerging markets-focused bank Standard Chartered was leading
the risers today, gaining 5.9%. It was revealed yesterday that a US banking regulator accused
it of collusion with the government of Iran to hide transactions from authorities.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca was under the weather after its study of BTG's CytoFab drug showed
that there were no significant improvements versus a placebo. Astra has now halted further
development and handed the asset back to BTG. However, BTG has also decided not to conduct
further developments and said it will take a £28m one-off charge this year.
Rio Tinto, the mining and resources giant, jumped after managing to beat market expectations
on earnings in the first half.
Engineering group GKN was a heavy faller after going ex-dividend - from today, investors
will not have the right to the group's latest dividend. Also going ex-div today were FTSE
350 peers Reckitt Benckiser, Reed Elsevier, SABMiller, BT Group, Rexam, Spirent Communications,
Greene King and RPC.
Currency headwinds were a problem for South African insurance group Old Mutual in the first
half of 2012, as were falling interest rates, which hit investment returns, causing shares
to fall early on.
Defence technology group Cobham dropped despite seeing robust growth in its core businesses
in the first half, as it said that it is approaching 2013 'with caution', particularly as its
order intake slipped by over a fifth.
THE FTSE 100 @ 10:00 Down 23 @ 5,817
THE DOW JONES closed Up 51 @ 13168
THE NASDAQ closed Up 25 @ 3015
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD @ 10:00 1.5591
GBP - EURO @ 10:00 1.2587
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