RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO May 8th  2012                                                                                                 Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed 1.8% lower as the political uncertainty across Europe caused yet another bout of risk aversion for the FTSE following a long weekend that saw a changing of the guard in France and Greece. Heavily-weighted mining stocks were the biggest fallers.

Tullow Oil rose  after it discovered further oil in the first exploration well at one of its Kenyan projects, increasing its potential 'significantly'. Following an announcement in March that the well had encountered in excess of 20m of net oil pay, the well was then deepened from 1,041m to 1,515m and a total pay count greater than 100m has now been discovered.

Insurance group Aviva performed strongly after it announced that its CEO Andrew Moss has quit with immediate effect after the majority of its shareholders last week voted against the remuneration report.

Mining stocks were among the worst performers as they tracked metals prices lower. Vedanta Resources was a faller while Fresnillo, Randgold, Polymetal and Xstrata also suffered steep losses.

Exillon Energy saw average production slip in April, but the shares edged higher after it revealed that its financial performance has been better than expected, with the average selling price of oil ahead of the budgeted level.

The construction group Galliford Try saw its shares fall despite being awarded a contract to build a new water treatment works in Lincolnshire. The £36m contract was awarded by Anglian Water who have comissioned the build to enable water from the River Trent to be treated at a downstream location for the first time.

McDonald's, the US listed company, announced a global same-store sales rise of a smaller -than-expected 3.3%  in April as the world's largest fast-food chain wrestled with a challenging global economic environment.

THE FTSE 100              closed           Down          100       @      5,554 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00          Down          137       @     12870 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00           Down          45        @      2912 Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00             1.6157 GBP - EURO     @      17:00             1.2415