RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO April 12th  2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 trades down 0.16% . GKN is the biggest riser following a brokerage upgrade. On the downside though, Royal Dutch Shell posts the heftiest losses, off 3.9% after the company reported a "light sheen" in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, traders digest UK trade balance figures for February, which show the deficit widened more than expected as sales to countries outside the EU fell.

Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch Shell fell sharply on the back of reports of a 10 square-mile oil sheen near to one of its platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. While no one knows where the oil came from as of yet, the company has sent a vessel to investigate. Sector peer BP was also out of favour.

Engineering giant GKN was a high riser after an upgrade from Credit Suisse which upped its rating from neutral to outperform.

Temporary power and temperature control solutions group Aggreko jumped early on after reporting 21% growth in underlying group revenue in the first quarter. "We continue to believe that we will deliver another year of good growth in 2012," the group said.

Emerging markets asset manager Ashmore Group saw assets under management (AuM) recover strongly in its third quarter, following a fall in the first half. AuM rose 9.1% in the period, compared with the 9% fall in the first six months of the year. Shares were up over 1% early on.

Power systems giant Rolls-Royce was in demand after having won another contract with the US Armed Forces, supplying power and propulsion systems for the two latest vessels in the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) programme.

Egyptian gold miner Centamin rose strongly after seeing total production grow 9% in the first quarter despite strike activity during the period.

Residential property owner Grainger was also in demand after saying that completed sales from its UK and German portfolios in the first half were ahead of the prior year.

THE FTSE 100             @ 10:00              Down      9        @    5,625 THE DOW JONES           closed                Up        89      @    12805 THE NASDAQ              closed                Up        25       @    3016 Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00                     1.5933 GBP - EURO     @      10:00                     1.2125



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