RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO MORNING REPORT 30 JUNE 2010

London’s leading shares have opened up but remain well below the psychologically important 5,000 level after yesterday’s pounding on both sides of the Atlantic.

Shares in Anglo-Swedish drugs giant Astrazeneca have leapt 9% to ?32.33 after it received a favourable US ruling in its battle to keep control of the patents to its best selling cholesterol lowering drug Crestor.

BP shares are trading 5% higher at 318p. The FT says Anadarko, a 25% partner to BP on the Macondo prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, approved several key aspects of the UK company’s designs for the project.

Miners remain weak on the poor US consumer confidence figures yesterday. Rio Tinto meanwhile is to raise its stake in Ivanhoe Mines by 7.3% to 29.6% and provide sufficient funds to Ivanhoe to continue the development of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold complex as scheduled.

Standard Chartered has confirmed that it is buying $500 million of the H shares being floated by Agricultural Bank of China, one of the top four commercial banks in China.

Oil services specialist Hunting said trading in the first half had been ‘very positive’ despite the BP oil spill and sluggish natural gas prices.

HMV announced results that were in line with market expectations, while sales burst through the ?2 billion level to hit a record level. More importantly for income investors who have taken advantage of the stock’s 13% dividend yield, the full year dividend has been held at 7.4p.

Big hits such as ‘Avatar’ and ‘Iron Man’ helped cinema chain Cineworld overcome the competing attractions of the World Cup and lift revenue by 3.7% in the half year to June.

THE FTSE 100 AT 9.50 IS UP 20 @ 4935

THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 268 @ 9870

THE NASDAQ AT CLOSED DOWN 85 @ 2135

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 50

GBP – EUR 1. 23