RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO May 3rd  2012                                                                                                 Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is up , rebounding after a sharp fall the day before, with investors looking ahead to an interest rate decision from the European Central Bank (ECB) due out after midday.

Profits at medical technology group Smith and Nephew beat both analysts' and management forecasts in the first quarter of 2012, which it said was down to the actions being taken to reshape the company.

Miners were out of favour early on. The Chilean-based copper mining company Antofagasta saw production drop sharply in the first three months of 2012 as maintenance work, lower ore grades and technical problem hampered activity.

Meanwhile, gold miner Randgold fell after revealing that both first-quarter profits and production fell quarter-on-quarter despite a strong rise on last year as output was held back the political upheaval in Mali and issues in Côte d'Ivoire.

Oil and gas giant BG Group dropped despite its first-quarter net earnings coming in sharply up on last year, with the group promising more growth to come as new production comes on stream.

Fund manager Schroders rose after seeing assets under management rise in the first quarter despite a dip in pre-tax profits and inflows.

Supermarket group Morrisons stated that its financial outlook for the year ending January 2013 remains unchanged despite like-for-like (LFL) sales falling in the first quarter.

Drinks group Diageo continued to report weakness in its European markets. Nevertheless, group net sales grew 11% in the third quarter and 9% in the nine months to March 31st.

THE FTSE 100             @ 10:00             Up             21      @    5,779 THE DOW JONES            closed              Down           10      @     13268 THE NASDAQ               closed              Up             9       @     3059 Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00               1.6179 GBP - EURO     @      10:00               1.2311