RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

8th June 2012

Evening  Report

The FTSE 100 finished @ 5,435 down 0.23% finishing the week off in the red as woes in Spain and across Europe continue to weigh heavily on the markets.

Metals prices retreated on Friday pressuring mining stock lower: Vedanta, Kazakhmys, Antofagasta, Xstrata, Rio Tinto, Glencore and ENRC were among the worst performers. A stronger dollar was making dollar-denominated commodities more expensive early on with crude prices also taking a tumble, denting the likes of Tullow Oil and BP.

BHP Billiton was among the fallers after Bank of America Merrill-Lynch reduced its profit forecasts for the group on the back of lower oil prices estimates. A hold recommendation was maintained.

Power systems group Rolls-Royce fell after announcing that it is to take full control of Aero Engine Controls (AEC), the engine controls joint venture it established in January 2009 with US aerospace giant Goodrich.

Heading the other way was the defensive utilities sector as investors fled from risk and into 'safer' assets, including Severn Trent, Centrica, United Utilities, SSE and National Grid.

In the FTSE 250 Energy markets-focused engineer Lamprell was battered having released a profit warning on Thursday after the London market closed, saying that expected to make a half-year loss of between $15m and $20m, compared with earlier guidance of "a small loss". The group also said that Chairman Jonathan Silver would step down.

Budget airline easyJet edged higher after revealing that passenger numbers in May were 14.4% higher than a year ago. Traffic has been steadily increasing since February.

THE FTSE 100 Closed              Down 12    @    5,435

THE DOW JONES @ 16.30            Up     4     @   12,464

THE NASDAQ COMP @ 16.30          Up     6     @   2,837

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD     @ 16.30            1.5427 GBP - EURO    @ 16.30            1.2353

*** RBS completed a 1 for 10 Consolidation 6th June 2012 ***