RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 1st June 2012

Evening Report

The U.K. stock index slumped in afternoon trade on Friday, after manufacturing activity in Europe and China dropped, while U.S. nonfarm payrolls numbers slipped below markets’ expectations. The FTSE 100 index closed down 1.1% at 5,260.22.

BP surged early on after revealing that it wants to sell-up at TNK-BP, the joint venture it set up with a consortium of Russian investors, as speculation has run rampant in recent days of a breakdown in the relationship between the British oil firm and its partners. Jefferies this morning estimated that the 50% stake in the Russian joint venture is worth $30bn.

After initially rise, telecoms giant BT Group fell after saying that it has sold its application development services business in France to the Paris-listed IT services company, Osiatis.

BG Group was heading lower, with investors likely to still be perplexed over Chief Executive's decision to offloaded more than £4.7m-worth of shares without an explanation earlier this week.

Edinburgh Investment Trust, a group focused on UK securities, after it put in a resilient performance in the year to March 31st, growing NAV by a tenth in spite of the volatile market conditions during the period.

Mining group Aquarius Platinum tracked platinum prices lower to settle in the bottom spot on the FTSE 250. Goldman Sachs has taken an axe to its price target on the company's stock

THE FTSE 100             closed          Down      60         @      5,260 THE DOW JONES            @ 16:55         Down      213        @     12180 THE NASDAQ               @ 16:55         Down     59         @      2767 Exchange Rates GBP – USD       @      16:55        1.5376 GBP - EURO     @      16:55        1.2395

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