RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO April 17th 2012

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed 1.8% higher, the upbeat tone was underpinned by a well- received Spanish T-bill auction and a better-than-expected German ZEW data. Banks rally after recent heavy losses. Retailers Burberry and Marks & Spencer bucked the trend.

Underlying revenue growth at luxury brand Burberry eased in the fourth quarter owing to a slowdown in growth at its Wholesale division, sending the stock into the bottom spot on the leaderboard. Total revenue grew to £1,027m in second half ended March 31st, from £877m in the same period the year before and up 18% on an underlying basis. However, in the third quarter alone, underlying growth was 21%.

Also falling was Marks and Spencer after inventory problems hit sales in general merchandise. Group like-for-like sales in the UK for the 13 weeks ending March 31st were down 0.7%.

Meanwhile AMEC, the engineering consultant focused on the resources industry, continued to rise one day after announcing it is on track to deliver double-digit percentage underlying revenue growth in 2012.

Financials  also performed strongly with Barclays, RBS, and Standard Chartered among the highest risers of the day. Barclays was given a boost after Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggested the broking community could be about to up their earnings forecast for the bank.

THE FTSE 100             closed              Up       100    @      5,766 THE DOW JONES            @ 17:00             Up       171   @     13093 THE NASDAQ               @ 17:00             Up       46    @      3034

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00               1.5929 GBP - EURO     @      17:00               1.2139



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