RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

2nd November 2011

Evening  Report

The FTSE 100 finished up 1.2% at 5484, rallying towards the end of the session. Following Tuesday's sharp declines, investors have inevitably sought bargains. Chancellor Merkel, President Sarkozy and PM Papandreou are set to meet Wednesday night to discuss Greece's shock proposal to hold a referendum on its debt deal.

Africa-focused gold miner Randgold Resources surged higher after profits for the third quarter jumped by 336% on last year to $122.9m, helped by the sale of 31,646 ounces of previously held gold on hand at Tongon. Mining peers Fresnillo and Kazakhmys were also higher.

Miners were also buoyed by rising metal prices, with copper gaining 2.28% to $3.58 on its December contract. Gold was also rising 1.18%, gaining $20.20 on its December contract to $1,732.

Next, the fashion retailer, was heading higher after reporting a 3.3% increase in group sales in the third quarter compared to the same period of 2010. The figure is flattered, however, by new store openings, with Next saying 3.4% of sales growth was down to new space; when those numbers are stripped out it appears like-for-like sales were down 0.1%

Fears about slowing revenue growth at satellite communications firm Inmarsat appear to have been overdone after the company saw revenues rise 17.9% in the third quarter compared to the same period of 2010, sending the share price higher.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered, the number two UK bank by market value, was heading lower, despite having seen revenues for the first nine months of 2011 grow by “a high single digit percentage”.

Imperial Tobacco was also down despite UBS raising its target from 2,385p to 2,435p, and keeping its buy recommendation on the stock.

Lloyds finished down 4.4% after announcing that its chief executive officer, Antonio Horta-Osorio, is taking a leave of absence for health reasons, according to the Financial Times. The board is set to discuss interim measures later today.

THE FTSE 100 Closed                          Up 62         @    5,484

THE DOW JONES @ 16.45                        Up 205        @   11,862

THE NASDAQ COMP @ 16.45                      Up 39         @  2,646









Exchange Rates

GBP – USD     @ 16.45      1.5967 GBP - EURO   @ 16.45      1.1601