RAMSEY CROOKALL

DAILY REPORT

27 APRIL 2010

The London market fell heavily late in the afternoon, as Greece’s sovereign debt was reduced to junk bond status by a credit rating agency and as Goldman Sachs executives gave evidence to the US Investigative authorities.

Shares in Reckitt fell 158p to ?34.97 despite the company posting a rise in earnings and sales for the first quarter.With oil and metal prices in retreat as fears grow about potential delays in financial aid reaching Greece resource stocks are out of favour. Rio Tinto was the worst affected in the oil sector while Tullow Oil and Petrofac are the weakest among oil related heavyweights.

BP more than doubled profits during the first quarter following stronger than expected results from both the upstream and downstream business. The shares fell 17p to 610p.

Lloyds Banking fell 2p to 68p after initially opening firmer on news that it returned to profitability in the first quarter. The part-nationalised lender expects this momentum to be sustained throughout the rest of the year. The lender did not provide a profit figure in today’s statement, but said it made a profit on a combined business basis due mainly to a significant downward trend in impairments.

Prudential fell 6p to 540p on a report in the Times that its biggest shareholder has been moving behind the scenes to orchestrate a potential break-up of the insurer.

Drugs giant Astra Zeneca has received more good news on its cholesterol-lowering drug Creator after the European Union cleared its use in nineteen European countries for patients at risk of a first heart attack.



THE FTSE 100 WAS down 150.33@ 5,603.52

WALL STREET THE LATEST DOW JONES WAS down 56.30 @ 11,118.73

NASDAQ WAS down 34.93 @ 2188.99

and that was today’s Ramsey Crookall & Co’s market report.