RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT

7 OCTOBER 2010

Shares have fallen back in early dealings following a mixed reception for company updates. Traders may also be looking ahead to today's announcement from the Bank of England on whether it will resume the quantitative easing (QE) programme.

Like for like sales growth at high street bellwether Marks & Spencer’s UK stores were well ahead of market expectations in the third quarter. UK like for like sales had been expected to be up year on year by anywhere between 1.3% and 4.6%; M&S delivered a 5.3% increase in the 13 weeks to 2 October.

Among today’s movers are Rank, higher after strong trading across its divisions helped the casino and bingo hall operator to a 7% rise in like-for-like sales in the third quarter, leaving it confident for the full year despite challenging economic conditions.

Car parts and bikes seller Halfords is lower after an update showed it is finding it an uphill struggle at the moment and slightly harder than analysts had imagined following recent warehouse disruption. Like for like sales fell 5.8% during the second quarter following a 4.5% drop at the retail business and 1.5% decline at Autocentres. Analysts were looking for 4-5%.

Finally, British Gas owner Centrica is paying £5.7m in cash for a 15.96% stake in home energy management services firm AlertMe, and has also signed a commercial agreement, potentially worth over £20m , to deploy AlertMe products and services to its customers in the UK.

THE FTSE 100 AT NOON IS UP 5 @ 5686

THE DOW JONES CLOSED UP 22 @ 10,967

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 19 @ 2380

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 5934

GBP – EUR 1. 1444