RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT 13TH DECEMBER 2010

London has made decent progress in early dealings with oil services groups lifting the mood.

Wood Group expects results this year to be slightly ahead of expectations. The Aberdeen-based firm saw continued progress at most of its key divisions. Its Engineering unit secured a number of awards during the year, as it order book continues to strengthen, the group said in a statement.

Also in oilfield services, reports this morning suggest General Electric is poised to seal a £755m-plus takeover of Wellstream, the UK oil and gas services group. The deal is expected to be higher than 750p a share but less than 800p.

Miners are in demand. ENRC, Kazakhmys and Xstrata are the best of the risers. Elsehwhere, British Airways is also going well.

Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) has given short shrift to a proposal by David Simon, chairman and chief executive of US Mall owner Simon Property, that the US group subscribes to a sale of up to 205.5m of Capital Shopping shares priced at 400p each to fund the £1.6bn Trafford deal. "Completely impracticable," is CSC's response.

De la Rue has appointed Tim Cobbold as chief executive and an executive director of the company, starting in January. He joins De La Rue from Chloride Group. His first job will be to see off the bid attentions of French group Oberthur.

THE FTSE 100 AT 12.30 PM IS UP 55 @ 5868

THE DOW JONES CLOSED UP 40 @ 11,410

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED UP 20 @ 2637

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.57 GBP – EUR 1.19