RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO April 27th 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is trading marginally higher, helped by firmer mining shares which are lifted by recovering metal prices.

CRH rose after JP Morgan Cazenove upgraded the stock from underweight to overweight. Meanwhile telecoms giant BT was out of favour despite an upgrade from Goldman Sachs from buy to conviction buy.

Publishing giant Pearson announced that it continues to expect growth in sales and operating profits this year, having traded in line with expectations in the first quarter.

Media giant WPP also stated that it is reviewing its full-year forecasts after an impressive start to 2012 with like-for-like revenue growth coming in ahead of expectations in the first quarter.

Salamander Energy, the independent upstream oil and gas exploration and production business focused on South-East Asia, fell after announcing that it is looking to raise around $201m through an underwritten rights issue to accelerate its drilling programme. Investec downgraded the stock from buy to hold this morning.

BASF, the world's largest chemicals company by sales, says it still expects higher year-on-year sales and earnings this year, due mainly to demand in emerging markets.

THE FTSE 100             closed            Up       7      @    5,756 THE DOW JONES            @  17:00          Up       113      @     13204 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00           Up      20       @    3050

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00                   1.6182 GBP - EURO     @      17:00                   1.2252