RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO May 23rd 2012

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed down 2.5% at 5266.41, extending declines into the close, amid increasing doubts that tonight's EU summit will achieve anything concrete, or prevent a Greek euro exit.

Mining stocks suffered the brunt of the selling today as metals prices dropped on concerns that the Chinese economy may be affected by Greece leaving the euro. Investment bank China International Capital Corp said today that the world's second-largest economy could see its lowest levels of growth in more than two decades if the “grexit” scenario was to play out. Mining peers Vedanta Resources, Xstrata, Glencore, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Rio Tinto, Polymetal and Antogasta suffered losses.

Defence, security and aerospace group BAE Systems fell despite the fact it was awarded a significant contract to support the future aircrew training requirements of the Royal Saudi Air Force by the Saudi British Defence Co-operation programme. The £1.6bn deal follows an agreement between the governments of both the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

There were just a handful of risers on the FTSE 100; British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was one of them after the Competition Commission announced that it was no longer concerned that 'Sky Movies' has an unfair advantage over its competitors.

Healthcare equipment  and medical devices maker Smith & Nephew benefitted from renewed bid speculation. The shares closed up 0.8/2%

THE FTSE 100             closed        Down      136       @      5,266 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00       Down      166       @     12335 THE NASDAQ               @17:00        Down       32       @      2806 Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00                 1.5689 GBP - EURO     @      17:00                 1.2482

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