RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO

EVENING MARKET REPORT

8th JUNE 2010

The FTSE flirted with the 5000 level for most of the day with BP suffering heavy falls again this afternoon.

BP fell 27p to 404p as US president Barack Obama said he’d sack the British company’s chief executive Tony Hayward in an interview with NBC t o be aired tonight. Obama took exception to Hayward’s comments that he wanted ‘his life back’ and that the Gulf of Mexico was ‘a big ocean’

BP suffered another blow when Russia’s state run gas giant Gazprom said it had no need for the British oil company’s massive Kovykta gas field on Siberia.

Tesco fell 11p to 395p after chief executive Sir Terry Leahy announced he’ll retire next march, with Philip Clarke moving up to take his place as CEO at the UK’s top supermarket chain.

Leahy steps down after 14 years in the top job, a period that has seen Tesco become the dominant force in UK grocery retailing and start to make significant inroads into overseas markets in Asia and more recently the US. Clarke is a lifelong Tesco man.

Newsagent chain WH Smith announced the retirement of chairman Robert Walker as it revealed a 4% fall in like for like sales in the 14 weeks to June 5.

Falkland Basin explorer Rockhopper has wasted little time in tapping shareholders after its recent discoveries in the South Atlantic. The firm is to raise ?48.5 million through a pacing of 17.3 million ew shares at 280p apiece, a small discount to last night’s close of 290p

THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 40 @ 5028

THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 43 @ 9859

THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS DOWN 11 @ 2162

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 442

GBP – EUR 1. 201