RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

1 SEPTEMBER 2010

Leading shares closed sharply higher, building on this morning’s gains.

In the battle of the “bid speculation” stocks, package tour operator TUI Travel leapfrogged over Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) to claim the prize as best performing blue-chip.

TUI Travel is higher on hopes that majority shareholder TUI of Germany will buy up the 42.5% of shares in the UK operator that it does not already own, taking advantage of the weak share price after TUI Travel’s underwhelming trading update last month.

The rumours were started in the German press but counter-claims have emerged that TUI AG will want to clear the decks and sell its stake in container shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd first before considering taking out the rest of TUI Travel.

Meanwhile, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, the demerged part of Cable & Wireless that is predominantly comprised of the telecoms giant’s UK business, is being touted as a possible target for US telecoms titan AT&T .

On a more downbeat note, Insurer Standard Life is sacking as many as 600 staff in an effort to create efficiencies and bring down costs.

And troubled oil giant BP has raised more than $400m (£260m) through the sale of two of its interests in Malaysia to help meet its bill for the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Dry cleaning to workwear hire group Johnson Service reported a 17% increase in half-year profit and said it is well placed for a successful second half.

Finally, a day after the company lost a quarter of its stock market value, cash-strapped vehicle replacement firm Accident Exchange share price fell by almost two-thirds after the company said that a debt for equity swap deal is likely to leave the company with too few shares held by the public to maintain a stock market listing.

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED UP 141 @ 5366

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 244 @ 10,259

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS UP 57 @ 2171

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 545

GBP – EUR 1. 206