RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO EVENING REPORT

4 February 2011

The FTSE 100 kept its head above 6,000 over the lunchtime period despite a negative reaction to US jobless figures at 1:30. However, the index finished 3 points under the significant 6000 mark.

Utilities dragged the blue-chip index higher on the back of a positive broker note on the sector from BofA Merrill Lynch. The US bank has upgraded United Utilities and Severn Trent from “neutral” to “buy” and upgraded Pennon and Northumbrian Water from “underperform” to “neutral”. Severn Trent closed up 50p at £14.40.

In other broker action Wm Morrison has been upgraded to 'buy' from 'neutral' by UBS, which suggests the supermarket chain has at least £1bn to hand out either in a one-off distribution or through higher dividends.

The US Food and Drug Administration has accepted the AstraZeneca’s resubmission of a new drug application for its blood-thinning drug BRILINTA, and set a review date of 20 July.

SuperGroup, owner of the rapidly growing Superdry clothes chain, leads the FTSE 250 higher after saying it has splashed out €40m in cash and shares to buy out its Benelux and France franchisee CNC Collections from its owner Luc Clément. CNC is the leading franchisee globally for the Superdry brand.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED UP 14 @ 5997 THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS DOWN 5 @ 12,056

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 1 @ 2753

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.60 GBP - EURO 1.18