RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT

11 OCTOBER 2010

London has started on the back foot with miners and oil companies under heavy selling pressure.

Xstrata, ENRC, and Antofagasta are the worst hit of the miners, though the whole sector is lower.

Oil groups are also suffering. Tullow and BG are the worst hit of the FTSE 100 groups, but Soco is the real casualty after a disappointing update on its drilling its Vietnam.

Elsewhere, pub owner Punch Taverns has served up full-year results in line with expectations and announced plans to sell another 1,300 pubs to help pay off its huge debts.

Internet and catalogue home shopping company N Brown said total revenue in the 26 weeks to 28 August rose 3.2% to £349.7m from £338.7m a year earlier, more or less what the market had been forecasting. Like-for-like sales grew by 0.6%. Profit before tax rose to £42.3m from £33.3m.

Finally, engineering software firm Aveva said performance in the first half of its financial year was in line with the board’s expectations. "Our strong base of recurring revenue, together with good growth in developing markets, continues to help mitigate the impact of economic uncertainty,” said Richard Longdon, chief executive of Aviva.

THE FTSE 100 AT NOON IS DOWN 42 @ 5630

THE DOW JONES CLOSED UP 3 @ 11,010

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED UP 1 @ 2402

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 585

GBP – EUR 1. 147 ??

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