RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
29 MARCH 2011 MIDDAY REPORT
London opened higher this morning, however, has since fallen flat due to investors keeping
a wary eye on events in Japan and Libya.
BP is also under pressure after major shareholder Standard Life told it to walk away from
its troubled deal with Russian state oil company Rosneft.
BP wants to push ahead with the share-swap that would it buy a 9.5% stake in Rosneft, taking
its holding to 11%, while the Russian group would take 5% of the UK oil giant.
David Cumming, Standard Life's UK equities head, said in an interview "At the moment we don't
think BP has got a Plan B so unless there is some clear commercial benefit to BP shareholders
for doing this deal...we're not supportive at the moment," he told the BBC.
Hedge fund giant Man again needed the help of recent acquisition GLG as market uncertainty
following the earthquake in Japan took its toll on its core AHL fund. Funds under management
over the past three months edged up to $69bn from $68.6bn at December, though AHL’s performance
“turned sharply down with markets after the Japanese earthquake but has since partially recovered”.
A positive performance at GLG also counterbalanced a negative period for AHL, Man said.
Finally, travel company Thomas Cook has kept its estimate of disruption from the uprisings in Egypt
and Tunisia to £20m and says, overall, the business is performing well. Bookings, capacity and
booked load factors across all markets are lower than previously reported for winter season holidays
though, mainly due to cancellations following the unrest in North Africa. But summer holiday
bookings are ahead of last year in many areas.
THE FTSE 100 AT NOON IS DOWN 16 @ 5888
THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 22 @ 12,197
THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 12 @ 2730
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD 1.6010
GBP - EURO 1.1325
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