RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

May 17th  2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 trades down, edging lower, as banks and mining stocks decline. Greece remains firmly on investors' minds.

Diversified mining group Vedanta Resources fell as full-year revenue came in slightly below forecasts. Nevertheless, the company said it achieved record production across several key commodity classes and that the demand outlook remains strong, especially in the emerging markets.

Aviva, the general insurer which recently lost its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after a shareholder revolt over pay, fell after saying that operating profit for the first quarter of the year was marginally down on the corresponding period of last year. Stripping out the effects of the sale of car rescue service RAC and the de-consolidation of Delta Lloyd - which is no longer a subsidiary since the group sold down its stake - sees operating profit show a slight increase.

Mining firm Antofagasta also dipped into the red despite seeing group turnover and EBITDA jump 38.9% and 35.4%, respectively, in the first quarter. The group revealed that copper production fell 12.9% quarter-on-quarter.

Energy supplier National Grid fell early on despite an increase in profits and the dividend, as revenues eased and capex guidance for the 2012/13 fiscal year was revised higher. Net debt is also expected to increase by around £1.5bn during the current year.

Intertek, the quality and safety testing firm, edged higher after saying strong organic growth in the first quarter has been complemented by a big boost in revenues from the acquisition of Moody International.

Interdealer broker ICAP was performing well after UBS upgraded its rating on the stock from sell to neutral and raised its target price from 310p to 330p.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00     Down         27    @      5,377 THE DOW JONES            closed       Down         33    @     12598 THE NASDAQ               closed       Down         19    @      2892 Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00        1.5893 GBP - EURO     @      10:00        1.2496

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