RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

MIDDAY REPORT

27 JULY 2010

The FTSE 100 is making good gains in early trading.

London’s blue chips are still edging higher, with banks leading the way after Swiss peer UBS beat earning estimates.

Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are the top risers in the FTSE 100. Net profit at UBS in the second quarter came to 2 billion Swiss francs from a loss of 1.4 billion francs last time.

BP confirmed Tony Hayward is to step down as chief executive on 1 October to be succeeded by fellow executive director Bob Dudley. The group also unveiled a $32.2 billion charge for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and reported a headline loss of $17 billion for the second quarter.

Shares in ARM are slightly lower, even after revenues and profits continued soaring at the chip designer in the second quarter as it continued to see strong demand for its technology from makers of mobile ‘phones and other must have gadgets. It posted a pre tax profit of ?43.5 million in the three months to June 30, up from ?16.3 million over the same period the previous year. The shares are down 11p at 335p.

Diversified mining group Xstrata saw a small decline in copper production in the first half of 2010 but ferrochrome output rebounded strongly.

InterContinental Hotels is leading the fallers after it emerged that the Barclay brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, have sold their 10% stake in the Holiday Inn owner. Shares in Whitbread, the Premier Inn owner have also fallen.

THE FTSE AT 1.00 IS UP 44 @ 5395

THE DOW JONES CLOSED UP 100 @ 10,525

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED UP 26 @ 2296



Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 554

GBP – EUR 1. 1932