RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
MIDDAY REPORT
27 OCTOBER 2010
Stocks have taken their cue from Wall Street, which recovered in late trade
Wednesday, and are helped by a fight back at ARM Holdings and buoyant miners.
In Company News, Royal Dutch Shell grew earnings by 18% in the third quarter
compared with a year ago, while the figure excluding big one-off items 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.
Premier Oil has been awarded five new licences in the 26th UK Licensing Round,
including several blocks close to its existing interests in the Central North
Sea. The company, which already has a 35% interest in the potentially huge Catcher
field, said the wins, announced yesterday by the Department of Energy and Climate
Change, include two operated licences.
Finally, Hovis bread owner Premier Foods said total group’s sales fell 4.2% in
the three months to 30 September after a reduction in non-branded sales. "We
still aim to make progress in the full year but the slowdown in Q3 means this is
likely to be more modest and is, as always, dependent on Christmas trading,"
said Branston Pickle and Bisto gravy owner.
THE FTSE 100 AT NOON IS UP 42 @ 5688
THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 43 @ 11,126
THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED UP 5 @ 2503
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD 1. 5888
GBP – EUR 1. 1468
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Thursday 28th, October 2010 12:11pm.
