RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT 30 December 2010

Traders were regarding UK shares with all the enthusiasm of someone being offered another round of cold turkey sandwiches, as the lull between Christmas and New Year continued.

Fallers outnumber risers by around two to one among Footsie constituents, with miners reflecting the mixed picture. Silver miner Fresnillo was again on the rise, while Rio Tinto, Lonmin and BHP Billiton also head higher, but yesterday's two big risers Randgold and African Barrick have both run into profit taking, while Antofagasta was also given the cold shoulder.

BP was off the pace after it faced more US litigation with an investor lawsuit claiming the oil giant repeatedly lied about its safety record over the past five years.

Big contracts continue to roll in at Petrofac with the fabrications group now chosen to develop the SEPAT offshore early production system on the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Also celebrating contract wins was infrastructure contractor Balfour Beatty, though, unlike Petrofac, its share price is not deriving any benefit from the news. The company has won HK$2.3m of contracts in Hong Kong through a subsidiary.

Finally, TUI Travel was lower after it parted company with auditor KPMG yesterday after the relationship broke down following the discovery of £117m worth of irrecoverable balances after the integration of the tour operator’s IT systems. PricewaterhouseCoopers is replacing KPMG as group auditor.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 25 @ 5971

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS DOWN 22 @ 11,562

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 2 @ 2664

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.53 GBP – EUR 1.15