RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT 2 MARCH 2011

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered posted profits bang in line with forecasts at $6.12bn for 2010, while this year got off to a flying start. The group enjoyed a record January both in terms of income and profit. It’s still top of the leader board.

Whitbread was hit hard as revenue growth at the hotel, coffee shops and pubs group slowed sharply in the past four months. In a 17 week period that included the blizzards of December, like-for-like sales growth slowed to 3.9% from 6.7% over 50 weeks.

Admiral made more money than ever before in 2010, driven by the core UK motor insurance business, but that wasn’t good enough for demanding investors. The confused.com website had a “tough” year. Revenue fell 10% to £71.8m and profit slumped 34% to £16.9m

Elsewhere, Wm Morrison prepared to announce next week that it is returning about £1bn to shareholders in full-year results that are also expected to outline a pick-up in trading at the retailer over the past month, according to reports.

ITV promised an interim dividend after cost cutting and an upturn in the advertising market allowed the terrestrial broadcaster to ramp up profits by almost 200% in 2010. Profit before tax and one-off items leapt to £321m from £108m in 2009 on revenue up 10% to £2.06bn. Net debt fell to £188m from £612m a year earlier.

Finally, student accommodation manager Unite Group said adjusted fully diluted NAV per share rose 11% to 295p as it underlined its confidence in future trading with the reinstatement of a dividend payment this year. "2010 has been an excellent year for UNITE and as we continue to work with our partners in the sector we look forward to 2011 and beyond with confidence," the group said in a company statement.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 20 @ 5914 THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 15 @ 12,073

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS UP 19 @ 2757

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