RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO MARKET REPORT MIDDAY

25 May 2010

Leading shares remain in freefall as London takes its cue from Asian markets which closed sharply lower overnight.

US and Asia markets tumbled overnight and London has followed suit with mining and financial stocks the worst performers. Lloyds is down 5p at 50p and Barclays down 18p at 282p.

Marks & Spencer which are down 8p at 325p have reported a slightly better than expected profit but the retail giant said it remains cautious about the outlook for the year ahead. Profit before tax and property disposals came to ?632.5 million in the 52 weeks ended 3 April, an improvement on last year’s ?604.4 million.

South west England water group Pennon is up 18p at 507p after lifting revenues and profits in the year to March 31 and raising the full year dividend by 7.4%.

Losses at its cash processing division meant profits came in little changed last year at banknote printer De la Rue, despite good sales growth. Operating profits rose by 13% to ?109 million driven by good growth from the banknote arm. The shares are down 11p at 881p.

Home maintenance specialist Homeserve are up 19p at ?18.38 after posting a 13% increase in full year profit driven by the strong performance at its UK and international operations.





World Markets

THE FTSE 100 AT 12.20 IS DOWN 141 @ 4928

THE DOW JONES CLOSED DOWN 126 @ 10,066

THE NASDAQ COMP CLOSED DOWN 15 @ 2213



Exchange Rates

GBP – USD 1. 4409

GBP – EUR 1. 1743