RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MORNING REPORT 24 January 2011

London is muddling along in the early exchanges despite the decent finish to last week on Wall Street.

Banks are weak after comments by the head of the Independent Banking Commission over stricter capital rules and possible separation of the retail and investment bank arms. The political problems in Ireland have also unsettled the mood. RBS and Lloyds are both lower.

International Consolidated Airlines, the newly formed British Airways-Iberia entity, is up on its first day.

Standard Chartered has agreed to buy Singapore-based car and personal loans business GE Money for an undisclosed sum. Though no financial details have been disclosed, talk is that GE will get as much as S$900m (£439m) for the unit.

Elsewhere, John Lovering is to step down as chairman of Mitchells and Butlers and quit the board later this year. The pubs group is searching for a successor to Lovering whose stint in the chair has been short but action packed.

Shares of 3D and 2D x-ray imaging firm Image Scan powered ahead after it announced it had signed a £750,000 contract for the supply of an x-ray inspection system for use within a large UK nuclear facility.

Finally, Gem Diamonds received record average prices for stones from its Letšeng and Ellendale mines during the fourth quarter. Over the last three months of 2010, 24,517 carats of rough diamonds from Letšeng in Lesotho were sold at an average price of $3,291 per carat, up 74% from the $1,894 it made the year before.

THE FTSE 100 AT 9.40 IS UP 8 @ 5904

THE DOW JONES CLOSED UP 49 @ 11,871

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 14 @ 2689

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.59 GBP - EURO 1.17 ??

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