RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO  25th  November 2011

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is down 0.32%, extending declines. Heavily-weighted mining stocks are among the biggest fallers; Antofagasta down 3.7% and Kazakhmys down 2.7%. Euro-zone debt woes continue to weigh, after Thursday's meeting between Merkel, Sarkozy and Monti failed to deliver. Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Italian government bond is back up above the key 7.0% mark, ahead of an Italian T-Bill auction.

The biggest blue-chip faller in the early going, however, is Severn Trent, best known as a water utility but it is also a supplier of water and waste water treatment solutions, and it is this part of the business which seems to be causing it the most concern at present. Severn Trent announced an interim dividend of 28.04p, up 7.7% on last year in line with Severn Trent's policy of increasing payments by three percentage points above retail price inflation. Interim profit before tax tumbled 35.4% to £65.3m from £101.1m the year before, but with exceptional items and losses on financial instruments stripped out, profits were more or less flat, at £155.0m, versus £168.0m last year.

Contract caterer Compass is looking to gain exposure to South Africa, after acquiring Supercare Services Group for an undisclosed sum. Supercare is one of South Africa's leading cleaning companies. In the year to 28 February 2011, Supercare generated revenue of around £63.6m and had gross assets of about £12m.

Cash-strapped food manufacturer Premier Foods is to get a new chief financial officer. Mark Moran, previously finance director at SSL International, will replace Jim Smart early next month, though Smart will hang around for a month to enable a smooth hand-over.

The rally by cash-strapped package tour operator Thomas Cook continues, with the shares up by one-tenth in early trading; it will only take another eight days or so of 10% gains before the shares are back roughly to where they were before the company announced it was running short of cash.

THE FTSE 100  at 9.45                           Down      17      @      5,110

THE DOW JONES                                   Thanks Giving Holiday

THE NASDAQ COMP                                 Thanks Giving Holiday

Exchange Rates GBP – USD     @ 16.40        1.5491 GBP - EURO   @ 16.40        1.1622