RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 28th  March 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is down 12 points following 4th quarter GDP figures which were revised down to 0.3% Q/Q.

Some heavyweights on the FTSE 100 fell steeply early on after trading without the right to their latest dividends, including RSA Insurance, Prudential, Anglo American, Schroders and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC).

Miners on the whole were providing a drag, with Antogasta, Randgold Resources and Xstrata losing at least 2% each. Russian steel giant Evraz fell into the red after saying that it expects the global steel industry to remain challenging in 2012. Nevertheless, Evraz reported a pre-tax profit of $873m, up from $633m in 2010.

Inter-dealer broker ICAP said it has seen an increase in risk appetite in some markets this year, but has left full year guidance unchanged from that given at the time of its last update at the beginning of February. Shares fell over 1%.

Despite mining stocks falling by an average 1.2% early on, second-tier mining peers Kenmare Resources and Petropavlovsk bucked the trend after their full-year results.

Kenmare reported revenues of $167.5m in 2011, up from $91.6m the year before, helped by rising prices. The group swung to a pre-tax profit of $23.7m versus a loss of $16.3m in 2010.

Gold producer Petropavlovsk rose after seeing revenue double in 2011 on the back of higher production and soaring gold prices. The group also said it expects production to rise a further 8% in 2012 and admitted that forecast was "conservative".

African energy firm Ophir was also a high riser after it said it wants to raise up to £7.6m to help finance its expanding drilling programme. The firm said it would offer up to 30.5m new ordinary shares of 0.25 pence each, which help it to maintain its equity position in its successful Tanzania sites.

THE FTSE 100 @ 10:00                 Down         21        @      5,856 THE DOW JONES closed                 Down         43        @    13197 THE NASDAQ closed                    Down         2         @      3120

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00                        1.5919 GBP - EURO     @      10:00                        1.1927