RAMSEY CROOKALL

12th  October 2011

Evening Report

The FTSE 100 ends 0.85% higher, adding strong gains on expectations that policymakers can work out a viable plan to stem the euro-zone debt crisis much sooner than previously thought. The mood is lifted by the European Commission calling on the region's governments to release a sixth slice of emergency lending to Greece and advance the launch of the euro zone's permanent rescue fund by one year. The banks rallied on hopes that policymakers can push out plans for recapitalization of the sector; Royal Bank of Scotland closed up 2%. A firmer session on Wall Street also supported the market. Looking to Thursday's economic data, attention will be on the U.K. trade balance figures.

Man Group was the biggest decliner on the U.K. index, dropping 5.9%. The firm said late Tuesday that its flagship AHL Diversified fund lost 5.5% of its value in the previous week. The company said the losses mainly stemmed from long exposure to fixed-income investments and short positions in equities.

Fresnillo fell as an attempt to reinforce mine safety meant that the miner saw silver production fall by 5.8% in the three months to the end of September. As such, the firm lowered its 2011 silver production guidance from 44m ounces to 41m ounces.

Fellow miner BHP Billiton was also lower after giving the green light for US$1.2bn to be invested in the first phase of the Olympic Dam Project to develop an open pit mine in South Australia.

ENRC was the best performer, rising over 7.4% after yesterday’s announcement that it plans to complete another transaction with its founding shareholders by taking over a Kazakh coal miner in a deal valued as much as $600m.

Engineer Weir closed up 3.7% as investors gained confidence amid hope of increased demand in China.

Sales growth decelerated across all divisions at Burberry in the second quarter, as the firm revealed that wholesale - which accounts for over a quarter of group revenues - would see a significant slowdown. Despite this, the British luxury brand closed up 2.34% as sales growth was still strong over the first half as a whole, at 30%.

THE FTSE 100 closed                               Up       46        @         5441 THE DOW JONES at 16:40                            Up       129       @         11545             NASDAQ COMP at 16:40                              Up       37        @         2620  











            Commodities Spot Gold $/Oz           $1677                         Up              0.86 % Brent Crude Oil          $111.96                       Up              1.57 %

Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.5771 GBP - EURO          1.1425