RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

23 JULY 2010

Leading blue-chips continued to drift lower with investors happy to bank the week’s profits ahead of the week-end and the announcement of the results of the European banking stress tests at 5:00pm today.

Not surprisingly, banks feature prominently among the losers with Standard Chartered, HSBC and Lloyds nursing the biggest losses.

Telecoms titan BT is also out of favour after industry watchdog Ofcom ruled out changes to the company’s funding that would have allowed it to raise wholesale prices to help the huge deficit in its pension fund.

TUI Travel gives back some of the gains made early in the week as bid speculation fades, while a study by the Co-op Travel suggesting travel companies are slashing prices to shift holiday packages will not have helped sentiment either.

Vodafone, up 2p at 152p, returned to organic revenue growth in the previous quarter for the first time since the near global recession. Group revenue increased by 4.8% to ?11.3 billion.

United Utilities says current trading reflects lower prices for 2010/11 and reduced water volumes. However, these negatives are being partly offset by a drop in energy costs.

Britvic saw revenue increase by 16.2% from a year earlier to ?289.5 million in its third quarter. The shares are trading down 11p at 507p.

BP has temporarily suspended relief well activities at the MC252 well site in the Gulf of Mexico due to “potentially adverse weather” linked to Tropical Storm Bonnie.



THE FTSE AT CLOSE DOWN 1 @ 5312

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 27 @ 10,349

THE NASDAQ COMP 4.30 IS DOWN 1 @ 2244

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 542

GBP – EUR 1. 193