RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 27th  March 2012

 Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is up 0.5%. Investors welcomed the speech by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke Monday. Royal Bank of Scotland jumped 6% in early trade on reports that the UK government is looking to sell some of its stake in the lender to Abu Dhabi's sovereign-wealth funds. The BBC has said that it could offload up to a third of its 82% stake, following a government bailout back in 2008. Sector peers Lloyds and Barclays were also on the rise.

Cooper miner Kazakhmys was also a strong performance after publishing its full-year results. Despite the majority of the main figures being revealed in a pre-close trading update earlier this month, shares rose nearly 3% early on. Revenues rose to $3,563m from $3,237m in 2010, while EBITDA edged up to $1,959m from $1,932m the year before. Fellow miners - Vedanta, Fresnillo, Evraz and ENRC - were also in demand.

Rio Tinto was making gains after saying that it is thinking about offloading its diamond interests and has begun a strategic review of the business. "The diamonds market outlook is very positive, with demand growing strongly and lack of new discoveries limiting supply. We have a valuable, high quality diamonds business, but given its scale we are reviewing whether we can create more value through a different ownership structure," said Harry Kenyon-Slaney, the Chief Executive of Diamonds & Minerals.

Meanwhile, leading the downside was insurance group Resolution which fell after revealing that it could split its business into two to attract a buyer. Meanwhile, profit before tax in 2011 came in at £681m, ahead of a consensus prediction from forecasts compiled by I/B/E/S of £602m.

Contract caterer Compass fell despite maintaining its expectations for the full year. Revenue rowth is expected to be around 8.5% in the first half, the group said.

Plumbing group Wolseley was also out of favour after its half-year results. LFL sales rose 5% in the six months to January 31st, however growth has eased a little since the end of the period, the group said.

THE FTSE 100 @ 10:00                  Up            25       @      5,928 THE DOW JONES closed                  Up            160    @    13211 THE NASDAQ closed                     Up            54       @      3122

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00                   1.5979 GBP - EURO     @      10:00                   1.1970

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