RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 6th June 2012

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed 2.4% higher at 5384.11, amid signs that efforts are being stepped up to help Spain's ailing banking sector. At the same time, expectations of further stimulus by the US Fed are mounting.  Bernanke is due to testify Thursday before the congressional joint Economic Committee. The banking and mining sectors outperformed.

Hedge fund manager Man Group, which has lost 40% of its share price in 2012 so far, was the best performer by midday after Citigroup upgraded its rating on the stock to buy, saying that "Man is now at the end of its downgrade cycle." However, the US broker did cut its earnings estimates for the group today.

Miners were performing well after the better-than-expected GDP data from Australia and rising metals prices, with Fresnillo, Vedanta and Kazakhmys all making decent gains well into the afternoon.

RBS's shares were trading over the 200p mark today after a share consolidation, which has had the counter-balancing effect of reducing the number of shares each shareholder owns while at the same time increasing the value of each share. Nevertheless, even based on Friday's adjusted share price, RBS shares were still sharply higher, as banking stocks made gains. Heading the other way was Vodafone after going ex-dividend, meaning that new shares do not have the right to the group's latest pay-out. Vodafone also announced this morning that it is talking with Australian peer Telstra about buying its New Zealand subsidiary, TelstraClear. According to the Financial Times, the deal could be worth around A$300-400m, or £191-255m.

THE FTSE 100             closed         Up        123     @      5,384 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00        Up        197     @     12325 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00        Up        56      @      2834 Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00               1.5470 GBP - EURO     @      17:00               1.2351



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







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