RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

7th March 2012

Evening Report The FTSE 100 ends up 0.4%, finishing with small gains. US ADP employment data came in slightly ahead of expectations, offering a small boost to the London index. The Bank of England's rate decision is announced tomorrow at midday and the deadline for the Greek debt swap deal is tomorrow evening.

British American Tobacco was the heaviest faller after trading without the right to its latest dividend. Irish building materials group CRH and banking giant Standard Chartered were also declining after going ex-dividend Meanwhile, car insurance giant Admiral soared in to top spot after it decided to pay a special dividend as it seeks to curb the number of high value bodily injury claims which have dented recent figures. Admiral saw pre-tax profits rise 13% to £299m in 2011 with net revenue up 36% at £870.3m. Both those figures beat the consensus forecast of £291m and £849m, respectively.

Antofagasta announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Marcelo Awad, resigned from his position with immediate effect. The mining firm said that until a successor is appointed, Chairman Jean-Paul Luksic will assume the CEO responsibilities on an interim basis.

RBS was another faller, as investors continued to feel uneasy over calls by Business Secretary Vince Cable for the bank to be split up. Today Sir George Mathewson, the bank's former Chief Executive, said that it would be ‘totally inappropriate’ to break up the bank. Cobham was higher today after hiking its dividend and receiving some positive comments from broker Jefferies, which said its full-year results appear 'robust and encouraging'. Kingfisher, which owns B&Q in the UK and Castorama in France, was in demand after results from a continental rival and an upgrade from Morgan Stanley.

THE FTSE 100 closed Up 25 @ 5,791 THE DOW JONES @ 17:00 Up 78 @ 12,838 THE NASDAQ @ 17:00 Up 23 @ 2,934

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD @ 17:00 1.5746 GBP - EURO @ 17:00 1.1974