RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
May 14th 2012
Morning Report
European stock markets dropped sharply early Monday, with investors selling banks
and resource stocks as the Greece political crisis showed no signs of abating over
the weekend.
Barclays, RBS and Lloyds were among the worst performers on concerns over the global
economic outlook given the political uncertainty in the Eurozone. HSBC was also out of
favour after announcing that the sale of its operations in Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and
Paraguay for $400m in cash.
Falling metals prices were providing downward pressure on the share prices of the blue-
chip miners, with Anglo American, ENRC, Vedanta, Kazakhmys, Xstrata and BHP Billiton all
lower. Polymetal International fell after announcing the sale of its Veduga gold deposit
in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia for $20m.
Outsourcing specialist Serco was lower after warning that its first-half performance will
reflect the challenging environment in the US. Nevertheless, the firm said that it is on
track to meet its full-year expectations.
Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer, dropped after saying production in
the first three months of 2012 was little changed from a year earlier, despite losing
170,000 tonnes of production because of safety stoppages.
Essar Energy was out of favour after announcing that its 87.09%-owned Indian oil subsidiary,
Essar Oil, saw a sharp drop in earnings in the year to March 31st due to the reversal of a
sales tax benefits and a planned plant shutdown.
Bingo, casino and online gaming company Rank Group jumped after making a conditional
agreement to acquire Gala Casinos from Gala Coral Group, making it the largest casino
operator in the UK.
THE FTSE 100 @ 10:00 Down 99 @ 5,475
THE DOW JONES closed Down 34 @ 12820
THE NASDAQ closed Flat @ 2933
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD @ 10:00 1.6055
GBP - EURO @ 10:00 1.2478
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