RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

28 OCTOBER 2010

After going into a slump just ahead of midday, the FTSE 100 picked up this afternoon, helped by expectations of a firm start on Wall Street.

Elsewhere, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell grew earnings by 18% in the third quarter compared with a year ago, while the underlying figure rocketed 88% to $4.93bn, well ahead of market forecasts. Earnings, on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis were $3.5bn, up from $3bn a year ago, though that was well below the $4.5bn it made in the second quarter.

Mining firm Kazakhmys hailed another solid quarter of copper production and said it remains on course to hit its full year output target. Copper cathode production for the first nine months of 2010 totalled 239 kilotonnes (kt). The company has set itself a target of producing at least 300kt during the course of 2010. Other miners, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Xstrata are in the blue.

Not so good news for AstraZeneca where third quarter sales eased 4%, or 2% using constant exchange rates (CER), to $7,898m from $8,200m a year earlier. Underlying profit before tax dipped 10% to $3,083m from $3,437m.

Finally, the champagne corks are popping at oil giant BG after production began at the 100,000 barrel a day facility on the lucrative Tupi field in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil. BG has a 25% interest in block BM-S-11. As well as the oil, it’s expected to produce up to 177m standard cubic feet of gas every day.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 31 @ 5677 THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS DOWN 20 @ 11,105 THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 6 @ 2496

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 5976

GBP – EUR 1. 1455 ??

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