RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT

27 OCTOBER 2010

London has followed on from last night’s lacklustre performance on Wall Street and a weak display in Asia this morning with a poor start.

Reports suggesting that any new stimulus in the US will be smaller than expected have knocked the miners with Kazakhmys, Xstrata and Rio Tinto the worst performers this morning.

In company news, British American Tobacco’s cigarette volumes rose in the Asia-Pacific region during the first nine months of 2010, but fell everywhere else as smokers cut back during the recession. The maker of Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall grew market share, but volumes fell 1% to 526bn. They were up 5% in Asia-Pacific, but down 8% in Western Europe, 3% in Africa and the Middle East, and 2% in Eastern Europe.

Elsewhere, floor coverings retailer Carpetright said group sales declined 5.2% in the 12 weeks ended 23 October 2010 and warned it expects tough market conditions to continue into 2011. The closure of its operations in Poland accounted for 0.5% of the total revenue decline. UK and Republic of Ireland sales declined 4.6%, with like-for-like sales down 7.3%.

Finally, another heavy faller is CSR, the Bluetooth chip specialist, despite a “robust” third quarter, but revenue in the fourth quarter is expected to lower than last year. The company made sales of $222.1m during the three months, towards the bottom end of the $220-235m range predicted at the interim stage, though still up 6% on last year.

THE FTSE 100 AT NOON IS DOWN 22 @ 5684

THE DOW JONES CLOSED UP 5 @ 11,169 THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED UP 6 @ 2497

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 585

GBP – EUR 1. 148 ??

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