RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING REPORT

20 JULY 2010

London’s blue chips drifted lower with gains on miners marginally outweighing heavy falls for telecom stocks. With metals prices firming up mining stocks are in demand. Rio Tinto, Vedanta and Xstrata showed gains of between 1 and 2%

Cable & Wireless Worldwide shares fell 14p to 69p after it warned that the coalition government’s emergency budget will cause earnings growth to slow this year and come in at the lower end of the range of expectations.

William Hill reported a rise in second quarter revenues, though gains from the World Cup were partly offset by a loss making Royal Ascot festival. For the year to date, net revenue was up about 3% and pre exceptional earnings for the first half are expected to be around ?135 million from ?134.6 million last time.

Enterprise Inns up 3p at 97p has continued to see an ‘improving trend’ since the interim results on 11 May and predicts full year results will match forecasts.

Severn Trent’s customers kept consumption steady over the past three months from April, while prices declined by 0.7%. As a result, the water utility has kept its guidance unchanged for this year but the shares fell 13p to ?12.63.

Profits jumped by a quarter last year at spread betting firm IG Group as its bad debt charge tumbled and equity markets settled after the volatility of 2009. The shares fell 23 to 444p.

THE FTSE CLOSED DOWN 8 @ 5139

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS DOWN 58 @ 10,095

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 13 @ 2184

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 5269

GBP – EUR 1. 1826