RAMSEY CROOKALL

3rd   August Evening Report

The FTSE 100 ends down 2.3%, as worries about the state of Italy's finances, together with the continued run of weak economic data out of the US, push investors to sell equities once again. The ISM non-manufacturing and industrial orders releases from the US both fell short of expectations, highlighting a slowdown in the world's largest economy.

Mining stocks were lower, including a 2.8% drop for BHP Billiton PLC after Credit Suisse downgraded the firm to neutral from outperform. Fresnillo's share price continues to soar as rising precious metals prices boosted revenues at the Mexican silver and gold miner in the six months to 30 June. Total revenue rose to $1.056bn (£644.5m) from $605.7m the previous year, while earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to $757m from $394.3m.

Oil exploration group Cairn Energy saw its share price plummet after a disappointing result in its drilling campaign offshore Greenland. Despite the initial promising analysis in the South Ungavva area, the LF7-1 exploration well has not met its target.

After reporting sparkling first half profits as better than expected, the world’s largest beverage can maker Rexam rise. For the first-half of the year, total sales were flat at £2.49bn. For the period, organic operating profit for the beverage can segment rose 12%, whereas operating profit for the plastic packaging business fell 2%.

THE FTSE 100 closed                Down        133           @       5584

THE DOW JONES at 4:45              Down          76           @       11790                           NASDAQ COM at 4:45                 Down          5            @        2663                                       Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.6395 GBP - EURO         1.1465