RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 27th  March 2012

 Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed down 0.6% at 5869.55, unable to sustain the morning's rally. Energy stocks were one of the main drags on the index, as Total's gas leak in the North Sea continued. Tomorrow investors will eye the final release of 4th Quarter GDP.

RBS rose following several reports which claimed that UK Financial Investments, the body which administers public holdings in RBS, has held meetings with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund to sell between 10 and 30 per cent of the government’s stake.

Kazakhmys was on the up after the miner published its full year figures. Revenues in 2011 rose to $3,563m from $3,237m in 2010, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) edged up to $1,959m from $1,932m the year before. When accounting for the group's stake in fellow miner ENRC (which contributed $966m), group EBITDA reached $2,925m, up from $2,835m.

Fellow miner Rio Tinto was also higher after it revealed it is thinking about offloading its diamond interests. Rio, which currently has interests in diamond mines in Australia, Canada, Zimbabwe and India, said that its strategy is to operate "large, long-life, expandable assets."

Contract caterer Compass fell after admitting that like-for-like (LFL) sales growth in the first half of its financial year is likely to be slower than that seen in the corresponding period a year earlier. The group said the slow-down in LFL sales growth could largely be attributed to challenging economic conditions which continue to have an impact on trading volume in the UK and parts of Europe.

Insurance firm Resolution was another big faller after revealing it could split its business into two to attract a buyer. Nevertheless, profit before tax in 2011 came in at £681m, ahead of a consensus prediction from forecasts compiled by I/B/E/S of £602m.

Plumbers' merchant Wolseley followed suit after LFL sales growth tapered off in the last couple of months, despite a continued strong showing from the group's US operations. In the six months to the end of January the group saw LFL sales run 5% ahead of the corresponding period a year earlier, maintaining the rate seen in the first quarter.

THE FTSE 100 closed                    Down        33         @      5,869 THE DOW JONES @ 17:00                  Up           4         @     13246 THE NASDAQ @ 17:00                     Up           3         @      3126 Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00                          1.5975 GBP - EURO     @      17:00                          1.1978 ??

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