RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT

24 AUGUST 2010

London opened lower after a late fall on Wall Street and a tough day in Japan, with the Nikkei dropping below 9,000 for the first time in 15 months.

Decent company news has made little impact. 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.

Increased production volumes and higher prices contributed to a sharp increase in underlying net earnings at copper mine Antofagasta in the first half of 2010.

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.

Wood Group, which provides support services to the oil and gas industry, posted a decline in half yearly profit but said it looks to the second half of 2011 with increasing confidence.



THE FTSE AT NOON IS DOWN 57 @ 5177

THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 39 @ 10,174

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 20 @ 2159

Exchange Rate

USD - GBP 1. 54

EUR - GBP 1. 221