Trading Update

Release Date: 8 April 2010

Pre-close Trading Update

Oxford Instruments plc, a leading provider of high technology tools and systems for industry and research("Oxford Instruments" or "the Group"), is today issuing a trading statement ahead of entering its close period.

The Board is confident that the Group's full year performance is in line with its expectations.

Oxford Instruments' preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2010 will be released on Tuesday 15 June.

Ends

Enquiries:

Oxford Instruments plc Tel: 01865 393 200

Jonathan Flint Chief Executive

Kevin Boyd Group Finance Director

Hogarth Tel: 020 7357 9477

Rachel Hirst

Ian Payne

Notes to Editors

Oxford Instruments designs, supplies and supports high-technology tools and systems with a focus on research and industrial applications. It provides solutions needed to advance fundamental physics research and its transfer into commercial nanotechnology applications. Innovation has been the driving force behind Oxford Instruments' growth and success for over 50 years, and its strategy is to effect the successful commercialisation of these ideas by bringing them to market in a timely and customer-focused fashion. 

The first technology business to be spun out from Oxford University over fifty years ago, Oxford Instruments is now a global company with over 1300 staff worldwide and a listing on the London Stock Exchange (OXIG). Its objective is to be the leading provider of new generation tools and systems for the research and industrial sectors.

This involves the combination of core technologies in areas such as low temperature and high magnetic field environments, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, X-ray, electron and optical based metrology, and advanced growth, deposition and etching. Oxford Instruments' products, expertise, and ideas address global issues such as energy, environment, security and health.