RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO MORNING MARKET REPORT

27th May 2010

China’s denial that it is cutting its holdings of euro sovereign debt has sent London’s leading index up 1% this morning.

Miners also enjoyed a positive start to the session with BHP Billiton, Vedanta Resources and Rio Tinto among the top risers on the leaderboard.

Hedge fund manager Man Group, up 6p at 222p has confirmed plans to halve the dividend for the current financial year after reporting a 27% slump in profit for the year just ended.

Shares in BP are up 10p at 502p after it confirmed this morning that ‘top kill’ operations at its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico began last night and are ongoing. It should take two days to complete operations.

Military researcher QinetiQ posted a pretax annual loss and suspended its dividend for twelve months after a ‘difficult’ year, the group will undertake a two year restructuring programme. The shares are up 13p at 129p.

Sportswear retailer JJB Sports, down a penny at 19p said like for like sales revenue in the first quarter was 7.5% higher than last year. John Clare, who has been the interim chairman since David Jones stepped down in January, will assume the role permanently, effective immediately.

World Markets

THE FTSE 100 AT 9.50 IS UP 54 @ 5092

THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 69 @ 9974

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 15 @ 2195



Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 447

GBP – EUR 1. 180