RAMSEY CROOKALL

4th   October 2011

Evening Report

In London, the FTSE 100 fell 2.5%, weighed by banks and mining stocks. Shares of Xstrata PLC fell 5.49% and Anglo American  slipped 3.4%.

With very few shares trading in positive territory, Tesco PLC was among the top performers in Europe, rising 2.7%. UBS upgraded the U.K. supermarket chain to buy from neutral, citing an increasing focus from management on improving capital efficiency across the business.

Meanwhile, financials weighed, as sentiment was dragged lower by the ongoing debt crisis in Europe. Prudential, Barclays and Legal & General were among the worst performers. Royal Bank of Scotland was also out of favour on reports that a £1.4bn deal between itself and Blackstone to dispose of the bank's troubled property loans could fail.

Heating and plumbing giant Wolseley  fell despite resuming its final dividend for the year ended 31 July as it swung to a pre-tax profit of £391m, up from a loss of £328m the year before.

THE FTSE 100 closed                        Down      131       @         4944

THE DOW JONES at 16:40                     Down      161       @         10494               NASDAQ COMP at 16:40                      Up       19       @         2355               Commodities Spot Gold $/Oz           $1618             Down               2.52 % Brent Crude Oil          $100.70           Up                 0.10 % September Delivery  

Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.5386 GBP - EURO  1.1602