RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

16th May 2011 Afternoon Report

The FTSE 100 is down 0.9%, staying on the weak side, taking the lead from losses in Asian markets overnight while ongoing worries over European debt remain in focus. Financial stocks trade on the back foot on the ongoing debt saga. By contrast, miners have recovered as metals prices stabilize from overnight softness. Also, mining stocks benefit from news that Glencore International has narrowed price guidance on its planned $11 billion initial public offering to between 520p and 550p per share, higher than the previous given range.

Oilfield services group Wood Group slips after saying it is to return £1.05bn to shareholders by way of a tender offer to repurchase up to 32.1% of the issued ordinary share capital of the group. The strike price range has been set at 605p to 625p. The strike price range represents a discount of 6.1% to 3.0% to the closing price of Wood shares on 13 May, the last trading day before the announcement of the tender offer.

However, London Stock Exchange moves ahead after saying it remains committed to its proposed merger with its Canadian counterpart TMX despite learning that TMX has received an approach from Maple, a consortium of Canadian financial institutions and pension funds. Kesa Electricals is up 3.5% on reports in the weekend press that the company is considering a disposal of Comet in the UK and delisting from the LSE. The company generates all of its profits from its French business Darty, which has a strong number one market position. The delisting was reported to “make sense”, with Comet probably being sold to private equity groups.

THE FTSE 100 12.00         Down 52 @ 5873

THE DOW JONES closed Down 100 @  12595

THE NASDAQ COMP closed Down 34 @   2828

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD           1.6170 GBP - EURO         1.1460