RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT 23 December 2010

The FTSE 100 briefly touched 6000 mark this afternoon before settling at 5996. Mortgage lending fell to a 20-month low in November new figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) show, underlining the weakness the housing market is currently experiencing.

Elsewhere, ARM gave back a little of yesterday’s big gains. Miners have also dipped and HSBC is off colour on fears about further monetary tightening measures in China.

Pharmaceuticals giants AstraZeneca and Abbott have dissolved their collaboration agreement covering the development of Certriad capsules. After the US FDA issued a Complete Response Letter for the Certriad new drug application the two companies decided that the resulting regulatory delay meant development of Certriad is no longer commercially attractive.

Train operator National Express was given an early Christmas present in the form of a two-year extension on its c2c rail franchise. The decision by the Department for Transport (DfT) means the franchise will now run to 26 May 2013, although it has an option to terminate from 8 December 2012.

Finally, Afren, the Africa-focused oil and gas company, said well tests on its Ebok field, located off the coast of Nigeria, have provided confirmation of phase one production expectations of more than 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). The shares ease back, however, as production work on the field has been delayed.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED UP 12 @ 5996

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 16 @ 11,575

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS` UP 4 @ 2666

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.54 GBP – EUR 1.17