RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

15TH NOVEMBER 2010

A sprinkling of bid speculation livened up markets this Monday, as traders wait for the Irish sovereign debt situation to play itself out.

Shares in Invensys were higher despite the engineering firm denying press reports that it has received an approach. The company’s chief executive Ulf Henriksson told the Telegraph that China Southern Rail has agreed in principle the possibility of acquiring Invensys, but no “discussions regarding a possible offer for the company or about a strategic partner taking a minority stake” have taken place.

Premier Oil did its bit for the mid-cap index, racing to a new all-time high on talk that state-controlled KNOC, the Koreans who recently paid £1.9bn for Dana Petroleum, also have the North Sea oil giant in their sights.

BHP Billiton was higher after its decision to end its battle to buy Canada’s Potash Corp for around $40bn and sweeten shareholders with a $4.2bn share buyback instead.

The trimming of the BP empire continued this morning with the oil giant completing the sale of five southern African marketing businesses. The company has agreed to sell its fuels marketing businesses in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia to Swiss company Puma Energy, a subsidiary of Trafigura Beheer.

Fellow oil firm Tullow Oil was also wanted after a favourable result on its 10% owned Mercury-1 exploration well in Sierra Leone.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED UP 23 @ 5820

THE DOW JONES AT 5.00 PM UP 77 @ 11,270 THE NASDAQ COMP AT 5.00 PM UP 6 @ 2524

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.60

GBP – EUR 1.17