RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO April 2nd 2012

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed up 1.8% at 5874.89, with mining shares leading the advance. The relatively volatile session started positively before looking like it might reverse into a decline following poor labor data from the euro zone. However, US ISM data for March beat expectations complimenting UK manufacturing figures.

Miners provided a lift after the better-than-expected manufacturing data from China, which saw the nation's purchasing managers' index rise to an 11-month high of 53.1 in March, from 51 the month before. This boosted hopes for demand in the metals industry with Fresnillo, BHP Billiton and Vedanta Resources all among the top performers.

Randgold Resources did not perform as well though after Nomura downgraded its rating on the gold miner late Friday night from buy to neutral on the back of concerns that operations in Mali could be affected by the ongoing military coup.

Although not in the top 10, GlaxoSmithKline was a popular stock, having reported positive results from an initial study into its development of a drug for HIV treatment and alongside plans to increase its stake in US biopharmaceutical company Theravance.

Meanwhile the banks fell , with Lloyds, Barclays and Standard Chartered registered moderate losses, tracking their European counterparts lower. Some of Europe’s largest banks are already planning on returning the funds they got through the three-year LTROs (long-term refinancing operations) run by the European Central Bank (ECB) according to senior bankers cited in a front page piece in today’s Financial Times (FT).

THE FTSE 100            closed               Up           106     @      5,874 THE DOW JONES  @       17:00              Up           61      @    13273 THE NASDAQ       @       17:00               Up           16      @     3108

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00                          1.6025 GBP - EURO     @      17:00                          1.2027

??

??

??

??