RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MORNING REPORT 10th January 2011

A fresh round of takeover speculation and well-received numbers from Morrisons hasn’t been enough to cancel losses across the mining sector.

Supermarket chain Wm Morrison keeps forecasts for the full-year unchanged after growing like for like sales excluding fuel by 1% in the six weeks to January 2. In his first Christmas as chief executive, Dalton Philips reported total sales excluding fuel rose 3.1%, or 4.7% including fuel, while like for like sales were up 4% when fuel is included.

December's bad weather clipped department store Debenhams' sales growth by 2.5%-3%, though underlying sales still picked up slightly thanks to strong online growth and market share gains.

Elsewhere, online grocer Ocado said gross sales in the final quarter of 2010 increased 27.4% as it delivered nearly all its orders despite the extreme weather conditions. The group, whose main customer is Waitrose, said fourth quarter sales increased to £178.9m from £140.5m in the same period a year before.

Tullow Oil had mixed news, with success on one well in Ghana but a disappointing outcome on a prospect in Mauritania.

Finally, a joint venture in which both Balfour Beatty and Morgan Sindall own a 30% stake has won the £235m Whitechapel and Liverpool Street Station tunnels contract, which forms part of the Crossrail link. Work on the five-year project starts next month.



THE FTSE 100 AT 9.30 IS DOWN 24 @ 5959

THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 22 @ 11,674

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 10 @ 2703

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