RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

6 DECEMBER 2010

Leading shares were mixed but the FTSE 100 clung on to positive territory, largely on the strength of oil stocks, which advanced as the price of crude oil moved to evels not seen in more than two years.

There has been no shortage of takeover news to keep traders occupied on an otherwise fairly quiet day.

De La Rue received a bid, the FTSE 250-listed banknote printer confirmed Monday, thought to be from French rival Oberthur Technologies. Talk is the all-cash deal valued the UK company, also responsible for printing UK passports, at around £800m, a 25% premium to Friday’s price tag of £641m. Shares in De La Rue are up nearly 20%.

Elsewhere, Rio Tinto offered £2.2bn (A$3.5bn) for Riversdale Mining, a Sydney-based firm with interests in African coal. Riversdale confirmed Monday it had held talks with the Anglo-Australian mining giant about a deal valuing the business at A$15 a share.

Among today’s fallers was African gold miner Randgold Resources, amid concerns over the political turmoil in Ivory Coast, where two prime ministers have been appointed following the elections. Randgold said its recently commissioned Tongon mine in the north of Côte d'Ivoire was operating normally but that it was closely monitoring the political and security situation in the country. Finally, defence group Cobham further beefed up its US surveillance division with the acquisition of RVision for $28m in cash, plus up to a further $20m. Vision specialises in electro-optical and infra-red imaging systems to protect vital installations such as military bases, border security posts, law enforcement, nuclear and chemical plants, ports and harbours and various transport applications.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED UP 24 @ 5770

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS DOWN 26 @ 11,355

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 4 @ 2586

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.57 GBP – EUR 1.17