RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
April 5th 2012
Evening Report
European stock markets headed lower for a third straight day on Thursday, as
losses for banks and an unexpected drop in U.K. manufacturing weighed on sentiment,
while Spanish and Italian bond yields continued to rise.
Fund manager Ashmore bucked the downward trend of the financial sector after UBS raised
its rating on the stock from neutral to buy. The broker said that its recent under-
performance, combined with the strong fund performance and record inflows at industry
level, was the reason behind the upgrade.
Meanwhile, most of the other financial stocks sank following the release of the
manufacturing data, with Man Group leading the decline by midday, down 3.5%. Lloyds,
Resolution, Legal & General, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays followed suit. HSBC
was also lower after announcing that one of its most experienced bankers, Sandy Flockhart,
is to retire as Executive Director from the main board, having served 37 years with the firm.
B Sky B shares fell sharply shortly after Sky News admitted that one of its senior
executives authorised a journalist to conduct email hacking on two separate occasions.
The shares closed down over 3% on the news.
BT shares took a hit after BT Italia, a subsidiary of UK telecoms titan BT, sold its entire
stake in consumer-focused broadband Internet service provider NGI, allowing it to focus on
its core corporate and public sector customer base.
Car and bike parts retailer Halfords fell after admitting its like-for-like sales were
still heading south in 2012 albeit not as fast as they back-pedalled in 2011. Sector peers
Kesa Electricals, Home Retail and Dixons didn't fare much better.
THE FTSE 100 closed Up 19 @ 5,723
THE DOW JONES @ 16:45 Down 2 @ 13072
THE NASDAQ @ 16:45 Up 9 @ 3077
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD @ 16:45 1.5828
GBP - EURO @ 16:45 1.2115
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