RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

14th March 2012

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed 0.2% lower, underperforming its European peers, weighed by muted gains on Wall Street and sliding mining stocks. Though the bias was largely positive for the day after the Fed's upbeat statement yesterday, the London benchmark failed to break the 6000 point barrier and pared gains into the close.

Shareholders of Legal and General were cheered by the insurance leviathan's decision to bump up the 2011 dividend by more than a third, well ahead of market expectations.

Financial peers Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland and insurers Resolution, Prudential and Aviva all rose.

Meanwhile, medical devices and airport scanners maker Smiths Group dropped after it said sales have been strong at its engineering unit John Clare, but revenues have been hit in the divisions exposed to government budget cuts. For the half year to the end of January headline revenues increased by 3%, or £43m, to £1,415m, almost bang on the number forecast by analysts at Credit Suisse. Underlying sales grew 1%, or £13m.

Hammerson and Meggitt were also heavy fallers after both stocks went ex-dividend.

Also lower were the miners. With the dollar hitting an 11-month high against the yen and a one-month high against the euro, greenback-denominated commodities became more expensive, prompting a fall in the prices of gold, silver and copper. Fresnillo, Kazakhmys, Randgold Resources and Polymetal were among the worst performers of the day.

Despite the current gloom on the high street, sausage roll specialist Greggs is pressing ahead with its expansion plans, but slightly disappointing results saw its shares fall from recent highs.

THE FTSE 100 closed             Down            10                  @      5,945 THE DOW JONES @ 17:00           Up           19                  @    13,197 THE NASDAQ @ 17:00              Flat              @      3,039

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      17:00        1.5701 GBP - EURO     @      17:00    1.2041