RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

22 OCTOBER 2010

The majority of blue chips were stuck in the red for the day as Wall Street failed to arouse much enthusiasm. Miners continued to wallow in negative territory as dollar strength trimmed commodity prices. US company earnings have been largely well-received, but talks about currency tensions at this weekend's G20 meeting in Korea made traders cautious.

Lonmin, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp, Vedanta and Anglo American were lower, much of the attention however, was focused on IPOs. Anglo American closed at £29.16.

Legal & General was today red-faced as it revealed its third quarter results more than two weeks early after sending them to analysts last night by mistake. Included were figures revealing total worldwide new business on an annual premium equivalent (APE) basis of £466m in the three months to 30 September, taking the nine-month number to £1.35bn, up 27% on 2009. The shares closed at 103p.

Elsewhere, BSkyB is higher after it added more customers than expected in the first quarter, boosting revenue by 15% and profit by 25%, but there’s no word on News Corp's bid to take over the satellite broadcaster. Net customer growth of 96,000 in the three months to 30 September took the total to 9.96m, while a 12% increase in net product growth of 989,000 was a record.

Finally, internet gambling firm PartyGaming, which is merging with rival bwin Interactive Entertainment, raised revenue by 9% in the third quarter and has named Simon Duffy as chairman of the enlarged group.



THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 19 @ 5741

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS DOWN 28 @ 11,121 THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS UP 10 @ 2470

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 568

GBP – EUR 1. 126 ??

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