RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO April 16th 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 up 0.5%, recouping earlier losses to trade higher, helped by value-hunters creeping in to pick up stocks battered last week. Mining stocks post decent gains, helped by a sector upgrade to overweight from neutral over at Citigroup. Despite the mild recovery, worries about Spanish debt remain.

Banking giants Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays were providing a downward pressure on the FTSE 100 in early trading with investors eyeing the Moody's review. Other financials including Man Group, Old Mutual, ICAP, Hargreaves Lansdown and Ashmore were also out of favour.

Leading the upside was utilities firm International Power after French shareholder GDF SUEZ raised its bid from 390p to 418p per share.

Miners were also making gains with Rio Tinto, Vedanta Resources and Glencore among the highest risers in the opening hour. Gold miner Polymetal and EVRAZ were bucking the trend though after their first-quarter updates.

AMEC, the engineering consultant focused on the resources industry, after saying it is on track to deliver double-digit percentage underlying revenue growth in 2012, despite the continued macro economic uncertainty.

Oil and gas group Cairn Energy announced that Agora Oil and Gas, a firm it is set to buy, has struck oil at its Skarfjell Prospect in the Norwegian North Sea.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:10         Up           27        @      5,679 THE DOW JONES            closed           Down         136       @     12849 THE NASDAQ               closed           Down         44        @      3011

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:10                     1.5837 GBP - EURO     @      10:10                     1.2171