RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT 22 December 2010

The top share index is holding onto its gains, continuing to sit near 2½-year highs.

The minutes from the December meeting of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC) revealed that the committee was once again split three ways on what to do about interest rates and quantitative easing (QE). For the seventh month in a row MPC member Andrew Sentance voted for a rise in interest rates, while Adam Posen repeated last month’s call for a £50bn boost to the Bank of England’s QE programme.

BSkyB was higher following news that business secretary Vince Cable has been stripped of his power to rule on News Corporation’s takeover of BSkyB after telling undercover reporters he had “declared war on Rupert Murdoch”. Cable kept his job on the insistence of LibDem leader Nick Clegg, but David Cameron called Cable's comments "totally unacceptable and inappropriate".

Elsewhere, British Land and Oxford Properties, the real-estate arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (Omers) pension fund, have put pen to paper and signed contracts for a 50:50 joint venture to develop a new skyscraper in the heart of the City. The company, which mothballed the project during the recession, said the 736 ft (224m) ‘Cheesegrater’ is already generating strong interest from insurance and financial companies, and professional and corporate business sectors. It wil cost £340m and should be finished by the middle of 2014.

Finally, sticking with the takeovers theme, shares in food producer Northern Foods were selling like hot-cakes after it confirmed that it had received an approach from Boporan Holdings, controlled by the owner of the Harry Ramsdens chip shop chain Ranjit Boparan. Northern added that it remains committed to its proposed merger with the Irish food group Greencore.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED UP 31 @ 5983

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 8 @ 11,541

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS` UP 1 @ 2668

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.53 GBP – EUR 1.17