RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO April 26th 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is edged up 0.33%, helped by a number of upbeat earnings from the UK's leading blue chips. Unilever The US central bank kept policies unchanged and remains committed to keeping low interest rates at least until late 2014, with Chairman Bernanke leaving the door open for more QE. Consumer goods giant Unilever rose after saying it had a good start to the year and was on track to hit its full year targets, with turnover increasing by 11.9% in the first quarter.

Oil and gas titan Royal Dutch Shell was in demand after its upstream activities drove a bigger-than-expected increase in the Anglo-Dutch group's first quarter earnings.

Coffee shops, restaurants and hotels operator Whitbread topped expectations with full year profits and sales, with the Costa Coffee chain once again driving growth.

Adjusted profits at UK lender Barclays surged by over a fifth in the first quarter of 2012, well above expectations. Investec reiterated its buy recommendation for Barclays this morning. "As ever, Barcap is the key determinant of Barclays' outturn, and with Barcap revenues up 91% quarter-on-quarter or 3% Q1/Q1, the overall result is, as Bob had promised, very pleasing," the broker said.

Mining and power generation group Kazakhmys was higher after maintaining its full-year copper cathode production targets despite severe weather and transportation issues adversely affecting output in the first quarter of 2012.

However, not all updates were taken well by the market this morning. Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca dropped sharply after seeing profits fall by more than a third in the first quarter after a number of patents ran out and it was hit by tough market conditions.

Meanwhile, car insurer Admiral was lower despite saying it has made a good start to the year with performance in line with management expectations, and British American Tobacco fell as it reported increased revenues and volumes but cautioned that currency effects were affecting results. Speciality chemicals manufacturer Croda International was out of favour despite saying it has achieved record results in the first quarter of 2012.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00          Up      20     @    5,739 THE DOW JONES            closed            Up      89     @     13090 THE NASDAQ               closed            Up      68     @     3029









Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00                  1.6198 GBP - EURO     @      10:00                  1.2236