RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

11th May 2011 Evening Report

The FTSE 100 closed down 0.7%, weighed by downbeat stocks on Wall Street amid weaker than expected US trade data and falling commodity prices which pushed the mining and energy sectors lower. Early gains were reversed after the governor of the Bank of England painted rather a murky picture of the UK's growth prospects. On the upside, Burberry and Marks & Spencer performed well over the day, the latter on the back of a positive analyst note from JP Morgan Terrestrial broadcaster ITV was one the worst performing stocks today after warning that it is facing tougher comparatives in the current quarter, meaning that the firm could underperform the market in the first half of the year. HSBC has unveiled some details of its new strategic plan in which it will direct investment to fast growing markets while cutting back elsewhere. The group plans to focus on wealth management in 18 of the “most relevant” economies while limiting retail banking to those markets where it believes it can achieve profitable scale. Nevertheless, the shares closed down 5p at 650p. Energy services firm Wood Group was in demand after saying that it expects full year results to be in line with expectations. "The long term fundamentals for oil & gas and gas fired power generation remain strong and we believe the refocused group is well positioned to deliver good longer term growth," the group said A record number of customer transactions helped Sainsbury beat sales and profits forecasts, prompting the supermarket giant to hike its dividend by 6.3%. Sales grew by 7.1% from £21.42bn to £22.94bn, beating estimates of around £21.34bn, as a result of like-for-like sales growth of 4.7% and increased floor space, which contributed 2.4% to the rise.

THE FTSE 100 closed                  Down 42 @ 5976

THE DOW JONES at 4:45 Down 74 @  12685

THE NASDAQ COMP at 4:45 Down 5 @   2865

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD            1.6437 GBP - EURO          1.1494