RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT

23 SEPTEMBER 2010

London’s leading stocks have moved lower during the morning following weak economic data and further concerns about the Irish economy.

Among the big companies posting gains is All Bar One pubs owner Mitchells & Butlers, which appears to have enjoyed an Indian summer. In the nine weeks to 18 September the group saw like for like (LFL) sales improve by 3.6% on last year’s levels. That was a sharp improvement on the 1.6% year on year advance in LFL sales seen in the first 42 weeks of the fiscal year, and took the LFL improvement over the 51 week period up to 2.0%; Numis Securities had predicted an improvement to 1.8%.

The last major obstacle to the merger of British Airways and Iberia has been cleared after the Spanish airline backed BA’s plan to tackle its huge pension deficit. British Airways shares are unchanged at 239½p.

Water supplier United Utilities says it is on track to deliver results in line with expectations, with the recent regulatory price review for the 2010 to 2015 period now water under the bridge.

And wind turbine gearbox designer Hansen Transmissions has teamed up with gearbox solutions expert Romax Technology to win business in China and South Korea. The pair will work for certain wind turbine makers in the area, providing design, development and supply of state-of-the-art gearboxes for multi megawatt (MW) turbines.

Finally, Britain's biggest nightclub operator Luminar has eased investors’ fears over the company’s future with an announcement that trading in the half year to August 26 has been in line with expectations, if challenging.

THE FTSE 100 AT 12.00 IS DOWN 46 @ 5505

THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 21 @ 10,739

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 14 @ 2334



Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1.568 GBP – EUR 1.175

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