An analysis has been carried out to obtain the nonlinear MHD flow with heat and mass transfer characteristics of an incompressible, viscous, electrically conducting and Boussinesq fluid on a vertical stretching surface with chemical reaction and thermal stratification effects. An approximate numerical solution for the flow problem has been obtained by solving the governing equations using numerical technique. A magnetic field is applied transversely to the direction of the flow. Adopting the similarity transformation, governing nonlinear partial differential equations of the problem are transformed to nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Then the numerical solution of the problem is derived using Gill method, for different values of the dimensionless parameters. The results obtained show that the flow field is influenced appreciably by the presence of thermal stratification, chemical reaction and magnetic field. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.