RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO      21st March 2012      Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is up 0.3% at 5907.75 off earlier highs, after weak UK public borrowing figures. Miners continued on worries about a growth slowdown in China. %. The focus will now be on the 2012 Budget Report at 12:30.

Retailers were on the rise in early trading with Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury, Tesco and Morrison making gains. Debenhams was leading the gainers on the FTSE 250 after Citigroup upped its recommendation on the stock from hold to buy.

Sainsbury, once Britain's leading supermarket chain by sales but now relegated to the number three slot, has continued its revival in the fourth quarter with like- or-like (LFL) sales growth ahead of expectations. LFL sales in the 10 weeks to March 17th were up 2.5% year-on-year, or 2.6% excluding fuel. That was down from the third quarter growth rate of 4.8% (inc. fuel) but better than the 2.1% growth the market had been expecting.

Outsourcing giant Serco was the highest riser after HSBC upgraded its rating from neutral to overweight and hiked its target price from 550p to 635p. Morgan Stanley also raised its recommendation from equal weight to overweight and raised its target rice by the same amount. Telecoms giant Vodafone was also advancing after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from buy to conviction buy.

Meanwhile, the insurers were being sold off, with Standard Life and Aviva being the two-worst performers.

Kazakhstan-focused miner Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC) fell despite saying it expects production to be at full available capacity across all divisions in 2012, with increased copper volumes anticipated. The bullish outlook statement accompanied full year results for 2011 which showed revenue up 17% to $7.71bn and underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 7% to $3.43bn.

On the FTSE 250, Ophir Energy, the African energy firm which began trading in London last year, is hailing 2011 as a 'transformational year' as both revenue and cash-flow surged. Revenue jumped from just $0.53m in 2010 to $14.68m in the 12 months ended December 31st 2011, helped by a farm-out gain from its AGC Profond interests to Noble Energy.

Elsewhere, trading the GAME Group's shares have been suspended with the board conceding that, in its opinion, there is no equity value left in the group. The verdict came after the board had assessed the status of the ongoing and regular discussions between GAME and its lending banks and between its lending banks and a potential third party provider of finance to the business.













THE FTSE 100 @ 10:00                       Up              16    @      5,907 THE DOW JONES closed                       Down            68    @    13,170 THE NASDAQ closed                          Down            4     @      3074

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:00                          1.5860 GBP - EURO     @      10:00                          1.1952