RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

8th March 2012

Evening Reprot

The FTSE 100 closed up 1.18% as investors became increasingly convinced that there will be a high participation rate in the Greek debt swap. The latest from a Greek official is that the Greek bond swap is on track to exceed expectations. Meanwhile, earnings news helped support market sentiment. The Greek debt swap results are expected at 06:00 tomorrow morning.

In other news. both the Chairman and the Chief Investment Officer at asset management firm Schroders have announced their intention to step down from their respective roles, a move which caused shares to take a small fall.

Meanwhile, miners were among the highest risers of the day, with Kazakhmys, Antofagasta, Vedanta Resources, Rio Tinto, ENRC, Evraz and Randgold Resources all making gains of at least 3% each in the morning session. The widespread rise came as commodity prices got a lift, boosted by hopes that Greece can secure its next bailout if the debt-swap deal is successful.

Xstrata was also in demand after agreeing to acquire the Sukunka hard coking coal deposit from Talisman Energy for $500m cash. "Based on our due diligence and technical analysis, Sukunka has the potential to be a high quality metallurgical coal mine," said Xstrata Coal's Chief Executive Peter Freyberg.

Supermarket giant Morrison a jumped as it beat both sales and profit expectations in 2011, after seeing a record number of customers in its stores. Turnover excluding VAT rose 7% to £17,663m in the 12 months ended January 29th, ahead of expectations of £17,570bn. Jefferies reiterated its buy rating on the stock this morning, saying Morrison is "delivering for shareholders again", after raised its total dividend by 11%.

There were substantial bid rumours flying around Bowleven, the West Africa-focused small-cap oil explorer, after it shot up 13%.Tullow Oil maybe the interested party .

THE FTSE 100 closed Up 68 @ 5,859 THE DOW JONES @ 17:00 Up 54 @ 12,891 THE NASDAQ @ 17:00 Up 27 @ 2,962

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD @ 17:00 1.5818 GBP - EURO @ 17:00 1.1932