RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT 21 January 2011

After yesterday’s triple-digit fall the FTSE 100 has clawed back around half of those losses, helped by a strong performance from miners.

Weather conditions in Australia have improved enough to allow Rio Tinto to end the force majeure event that’s disrupted supplies of aluminium from Boyne Smelters near Gladstone. The company’s aluminium arm, Rio Tinto Alcan, says transport operations have now returned to normal.

Other miners went well as industrial metals prices firmed up, while gold miner African Barrick is higher, even though the price of gold has taken a dip.

Elsewhere, after a lull over the Christmas period Autonomy has started banging out the contract agreement announcements again, adding two more contract wins on Friday to the four announced earlier in the week. Verizon Communications and an unnamed US law firm have signed up to use the company’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer software.

Trophy handbag maker the Mulberry Group put in a strong trading performance over Christmas and now expects full year results to be ahead of expectations.

Finally, snow and ice on Britain’s roads before Christmas has cost logistics group Stobart about £1.5m, although it’s still on track to meet reduced profit expectations for the year.



THE FTSE 100 CLOSED UP 28 @ 5896

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 50 @ 11,873

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 1 @ 2705

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.59 GBP - EURO 1.17