RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO April 23rd  2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 trades down 1.4% at 5690.31, dropping further into the red. Mining stocks are still the biggest fallers, with Vedanta Resources and Rio Tinto the heaviest fallere. Banks are also on the back foot, with RBS Lloyds Banking Group off. More broadly speaking, political tensions in Europe and a slew of downbeat PMIs for the region weighed on sentiment. Savings, investments and insurance giant Old Mutual dropped over 10% early on after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock from conviction buy to buy.

Meanwhile, the mining sector was heavily sold off on the back of the Chinese economic data. Vedanta Resources, Antofagasta, Evraz, Xstrata, Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were losing at least 2% each, dragged down by falling metals prices.

Brewing giant SABMiller was under the weather after announcing a raft of senior management changes as its Chairman, Meyer Kahn, retires after 46 years with the firm.

In contrast, International Power was a rare riser after announcing that it is to expand its jointly-owned Tihama power production sites in Saudi Arabia after winning a contract extension through to 2026 from oil company Saudi Aramco.

Mobile phone networks operator Vodafone has launched an agreed bid for telecoms firm Cable and Wireless Worldwide (CWW). The board of CWW has given its support to a 38p a share cash offer from Vodafone. The Vodafone terms value CWW at around £1,044m. Shares jumped in the opening hour, rebounding after last week's steep losses. "The offer from Vodafone announced today will enable shareholders to crystallise a value, in cash, that represents a significant premium to recent trading levels and avoid exposure to the risks inevitably presented by executing a medium-term improvement strategy," said John Barton, Chairman of CWW.

Imagination Technologies Group, the system-on-chip intellectual property developer, rose after signing a licence agreement with US mobile technologies giant Qualcomm.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00          Down          87      @      5684 THE DOW JONES            closed            Up            65      @     13029 THE NASDAQ               closed            Down          7       @      3000

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00                     1.6093 GBP - EURO     @      10:00                     1.2239

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