London open: Decent start for Footsie

16th Dec 2009 08:40

London's blue chips have opened higher with financials and support services groups leading the way.It has been a busy morning for company statements ahead of the holiday wind-down. Overall demand at GKN has been better than predicted at its last update in October and the automotive and aerospace engineer expects to make further "significant" progress in 2010. Retailer Kesa Electricals has reported a bigger than expected first half profit and better than forecast like for like sales at its Comet chain. The group made adjusted pre-tax profit of £14.9m in the six months to 31 October, trumping analysts' predictions for about £12m. It lost £103.8m a year ago due to a £114m charge. Like for like sales at Comet rose 2%, ahead of forecasts for 0-1.5%.Best performers though are Rexam and Rentokil with J Sainsbury also in demand.Pub chain Punch Taverns cautioned the challenging economic environment will affect profitability in the short term and also put pressure on one of its debt measures.Oil & gas facilities service provider Petrofac expects full year profits to be at least 25% higher than last year. The company has had a good year in the contracts front and said that with trading across most of its businesses continuing to improve, it should make profit after tax of at least $330m, barring unforeseen circumstances. Power station operator Drax expects underlying profits to beat market forecasts this year, despite lower prices for electricity, but is more cautious on pricing going forward.A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee has given a favourable verdict on the use of AstraZeneca's anti-cholesterol drug Crestor. Film studio Pinewood Shepperton said trading for 2009 has remained in line with market expectations.