RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

16 AUGUST 2010

The London market finished marginally lower lacking direction from overseas exchange.

Insurer RSA attempted to put a spark in proceedings by saying it was still interested in buying the general insurance businesses in the UK, Ireland and Canada of rival insurer Aviva. The shares closed down 3p at 124p.

Aviva had earlier outlined its reasons for rejecting RSA’s approach. It considered that ‘the highest value to shareholders will be delivered by retaining these businesses within the group’, a view obviously not shared by RSA, which believes a tie-up would make ‘strong strategic sense’.

Hotels and coffee shops owner Whitbread was down 13p at £13.68. The company completed an issue of private placement notes with an equivalent sterling value of about £102 million. The proceeds will be used to repay drawings under existing shorter-dated bank facilities.

Software group Misys has taken another step in its divestment of its stake in US medical software firm Allscripts. It has announced the start of a public offering of 25 million Allscripts-Misys Healthcare shares of its common stock on behalf of certain wholly owned subsidiaries of Misys.

Shares in Chinese battery producer China Shoto fell after it said trading conditions have continued to be challenging and that revenues will fall by about 11% and profits by about 12% in the six months to June 30.

THE FTSE CLOSED UP 1 @ 5276

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 8 @ 10,311

THE NASDAQ COMP @ 4.30 IS UP 9 @ 2183

Exchange Rate

GBP – USD 1. 568

GBP – EUR 1. 221