RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
April 13th 2012
Morning Report
The FTSE 100 trades down 0.5%, in the red amid worries about Chinese growth. Banks
are among the worst performers, with RBS down 2% and Barclays down 1.7%. Meanwhile,
the annual rate of UK producer price inflation slowed in March.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in China slowed to an annual rate of 8.1% in
the first quarter of 2012, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, down from
the 8.9% expansion seen in the fourth quarter of last year.
The miners were making gains despite weaker-than-expected Chinese growth with Rio
Tinto, Kazakhyms, BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Evraz among the best performers.
One stock that did react to the data though was luxury brand Burberry which was out
of favour with China being one of its key high-growth markets.
Xstrata and Glencore have performed well even though they admitted this morning that
their planned tie-up may take a little longer than expected, as they continue discussions
with regulatory authorities which require anti-trust filings to be submitted.
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell was a high riser following Thursday's fall on the back of
an oil sheen spotted near its operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The company released
an statement late yesterday saying that following a thorough investigation, it could
confirm that the oil did not come from its own platforms.
Business software group Sage was the heavy faller early on after Jefferies downgraded
its rating on the stock from buy to hold. "In the absence of any pronounced end-market
recovery, we are tempering our group growth assumptions for FY12E, with a modestly
improved EBIT margin expectation," the broker said.
THE FTSE 100 @ 10:00 Down 28 @ 5,682
THE DOW JONES closed Up 181 @ 12986
THE NASDAQ closed Up 39 @ 3055
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD @ 10:00 1.5920
GBP - EURO @ 10:00 1.2105
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