RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
28 MARCH 2011 MIDDAY REPORT
It's been a very quiet start with little company news and more concern over the state
of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. Latest reports suggest extremely high
radiation levels have been detected in some buildings near the plant's number two reactor.
In Europe, concern over Portugal's financial situation will also be a drag from while there
is no resolution on a bail-out.
Tullow Oil has found oil at the Teak-2 exploration well in the West Cape Three Points licence
offshore Ghana. The Irish oil company, which has a 23% stake in the licence, discovered 27
metres of net hydrocarbon bearing Campanian and Turonian reservoirs at the well, drilled
between the Jubilee field and Teak-1 discovery.
A 13-year tax wrangle between the US and the UK involving drugs giant AstraZeneca has been resolved,
resulting in a substantially lower tax rate for Astra in the current financial year. As a consequence,
Astra has lifted its core earnings per share guidance for fiscal 2011 to $6.90 - $7.20 from
$6.45 - $6.75 previously.
Irn-Bru and Tizer maker AG Barr saw profit on ordinary activities before tax and exceptional items
increase by 13.3% to £31.6m in the 12 months to 29 January from £27.9m the year before. The company
saw strong growth from all core brands in all channels.
Finally, growth in its business to business titles helped lift Daily Mail Group’s underlying revenues
by 5% over the past five months, though it was another tough period for regional paper arm Northcliffe.
THE FTSE 100 AT NOON IS UP 11 @ 5912
THE DOW JONES CLOSED UP 50 @ 12,220
THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED UP 6 @ 2743
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD 1.5977
GBP - EURO 1.1352
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