London open: Footsie higher as G20 kicks off

25th Sep 2009 08:43

Early morning forecasters got it spot on today with Footsie opening up about 20 points higher after Wall Street narrowed its deficit in late trade overnight.Pittsburgh is likely to steal many of the headlines today as G20 leaders attempt to cobble together a cap on bankers' bonuses among other things.On a more prosaic level, Tate & Lyle expects operating profit for the half year to be broadly in line with last year, but the sugar and sweeteners group cautioned that a number of its markets remain challenging.Oil groups are going well despite the steady decline in the price of crude over the past few days. It dropped below $66 per barrel last night and futures today suggest it will dip below $65, but BNP Billiton, BP and BG are all higher this morning.There's a 'significant risk' that nightclub operator Luminar will miss full year expectations after a grim few months at the end of the first half sent like for like sales down 5.9% in the 26 weeks to 27 August. They fell 4.5% when adjusted for the late August bank holiday. September has been even worse, especially weekend admissions. Avalon, a company owned by Permira Advisers, has reached an agreement to buy Just Retirement for about £229.6m. Avalon will pay 76p for each share in Just Retirement, which today posted a full-year loss of £3m.Sales remain under pressure at plumbing supplies distributor BSS with the group still predicting little pick-up before the end of the year. Total revenue for the 25-week period ended 19 September was £608.7m, 3.9% down on last year on an equivalent trading day basis, with a like-for-like decrease of 6.9%, BSS said.Business publisher Euromoney has put some life into the print media sector. The B2B group expects forecast beating pre-tax profits in the year ended 30 September. The group said adjusted pre-tax profit will be no less than £57m for the year, down on last year's £67.3m but ahead of expectations. Trinity Mirror is up, possibly in sympathy, even though Euromoney said its profit improvement was largely down to cost cutting rather than any recovery in advertising.