RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT

8 NOVEMBER 2010

The FTSE 100 has rallied as the afternoon session has progressed with miners making good gains on the back of better than expected US monthly jobs numbers.

Vedanta is now the best performer, with silver miner Fresnillo, ENRC and Antofagasta all making good gains.

Part-nationalised bank Royal Bank of Scotland is lower after it fell into the red in the third quarter. After restructuring costs, amortisation of intangibles and a £825m charge related to the Asset Protection Scheme (APS), the group recorded a loss before tax of £1.4bn, compared with a profit of £1.16bn in the second quarter and a loss of £2.1bn in the third quarter of 2009.

Rolls-Royce is another faller after the engine explosion on an Qantas Airbus A380 yesterday. Qantas said that the problem was most probably caused by a faulty design its Rolls-Royce engines.

Oil giant Shell has agreed to sell stakes in six Gulf of Mexico oil and gas fields for $450m (£280m) as it seeks to invest in ‘more promising’ growth opportunities. It is selling the Tahoe, Southeast Tahoe, Droshky, Marlin and Dorado fields and a Gulf of Mexico producing shelf property to W&T Energy for $450m.

Mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse is to start paying a dividend after raising its full year earnings forecast on the back of a strong performance from its US operations. It is raising its full-year earnings per share estimate to 13.5p to 14p from a previous range of 11.5p to 11.9p and said it intends to move to a regular dividend policy with a target of about 4.5p a share to be paid in August 2011.

THE FTSE 100 AT 12.15 IS DOWN 16 @ 5858

THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 4 @ 11,423 THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 6 @ 2570

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 61 GBP – EUR 1. 15



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