RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT 23 February 2011

British Airways owner IAG, and cruise operator Carnival again felt the pinch of the higher oil prices. Easyjet was also lower.

Elsewhere, British Gas owner Centrica underlined the importance of the Middle East for British interests today with the announcement that it has signed a £2bn deal with Qatar to secure enough liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet 10% of household gas demands. The company issues full year figures tomorrow.

A New York judge has thrown out an attempt to sue Barclays for $11bn (£6.8bn) over the way it bought Lehman Brothers at the height of the credit crunch.

Consumer packaging giant Rexam falls back even after it grew underlying profit by a bigger than expected 45% in 2010 and expects further progress this year. Profit before tax and exceptional items jumped to £412m from £285m in 2009 on sales up 2% to £4.96bn.

Net asset value per share surged 15% to 390p from 339p a year earlier at Capital Shopping Centres while net rental income improved by 4%, or 2% on a life for like basis, in 2010 to £277m from £267m in 2009.

Finally, in property, Capital & Counties, the central London-focused property group, is higher after it confirmed that it has received expressions of interest about a possible joint venture to redevelop the Earls Court exhibition centre. A report in the Financial Times this morning said that Capital is in talks with the Kwok family, which controls Hong Kong’s largest listed property developer Sung Kai Properties over funding for the redevelopment.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 73 @ 5923

THE DOW JONES AT 4. 30 IS DOWN 60 @ 12,152

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4. 30 IS DOWN 17 @ 2739

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.6224 GBP - EURO 1.1778