RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

24 AUGUST 2010

Equities fell heavily this afternoon as a bigger than estimated plunge in US home sales stoked concern.

Mining stocks are out of favour, particularly Vedanta, which has seen its proposal to mine bauxite in India rejected by the government on environmental grounds.

Fellow miner Xstrata is also in the doldrums after it announced a recommended cash bid worth A$428 million for Africa-focused, Australian-listed Sphere Minerals to beef up its iron ore portfolio.

A much faster than expected turnaround in the US helped advertising giant WPP lift first half profits by more than a third, with shareholders getting a 15% dividend hike, but the market is underwhelmed and the shares fall back.

Persimmon has restarted dividend payments as first half profits and sales rose sharply, though it says the housing market has slowed in recent weeks. Shareholders will get 3p per share after interim profits jumped to £101.4 million.

Pubs group Punch Taverns expects full year earnings to be marginally ahead of its previous expectations, as pub refurbishments and favourable summer weather brought in more customers. The group, which has more than 7,100 pubs in total, said like for like sales for the last 12 weeks were up 2.6% after improved trading particularly in the final quarter.



THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 78 @ 5155

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS DOWN 119 @ 10,054

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 32 @ 2126

Exchange Rate

USD - GBP 1.547

EUR - GBP 1. 22