RAMSEY CROOKALL

20th  October 2011

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is down 0.9%, moving off opening lows, helped by firmer US stock futures and an up-tick in some defensive stocks such as utilities and healthcare, as investors continue to shun the riskier mining and financial sectors. National Grid is up 0.2% and GlaxoSmithKline up 0.5% higher. Retail stocks also got a push from a rise in UK retail sales data for September, which came in up 0.6% on the month against expectations of a flat outcome. Marks & Spencer is up 0.4% and Next is up 0.5%. The mood, however, remains bearish overall, with banks hit on worries that this weekend's EU summit will fail to resolve Europe's debt crisis. Lloyds Banking Group is down 1.3%. Next up, US weekly jobless claims are released before the US open.

Copper prices fell 3.39% lower while gold and silver fell 1.29% and 1.62%, respectively, causing the miners to fall out of favour. Kazakhmys, Xstrata and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp lost at least 3% of their value. Anglo American fell despite seeing a 3% year-on-year increase in iron ore production in the third quarter of 2011.

Department store Debenhams rose after sales and profits came in ahead of market expectations for the full year to the end of September.

Britvic has risen strongly after saying that revenues grew by 14.6% in the year ending 2 October, helped by the first 12-month contribution from its French division.

Oil and gas facilities provider Petrofac fell despite saying that it has continued to perform in line with expectations in the year-to-date.

THE FTSE 100 at 10:00                     Down       57      @         5392

THE DOW JONES closed                      Down       72      @         11504             NASDAQ COMP closed                        Down     53      @          2604               Commodities Spot Gold $/Oz           $1622                         Down         1.29  %     Brent Crude Oil          $108.20                       Down         0.26   %

Exchange Rates GBP – USD               1.5717 GBP - EURO             1.1448