London open: Footsie opens up, Tesco's price drops

8th Dec 2011 08:11

The Footsie opened firmly in the blue as investors looked ahead to this evening's EU summit with confidence. Meanwhile, the Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB) are expected to announce their interest rate decisions after midday.ALL EYES ON THE EUROWith the BoE expected to freeze rates at 0.5% and leave its stimulus plans unchanged, an announcement by the ECB will likely take centre-stage given the severity of the current crisis in Europe, particularly as markets look ahead to the EU summit on Thursday evening. Following Mario Draghi's debut as ECB President last month in which he lowered rates from 1.5% to 1.25%, markets are generally expecting a further 25 percentage point cut to 1%, back to the level which was held from May 2009 to April 2011. Meanwhile, a proposal by European leaders to double the region's firepower against the crisis lifted sentiment in European markets on Wednesday. However, these reports were quickly denied by a German government official. Reports out on Nikkei.com last night added to the speculation: Nikkei has said that the G-20 is proposing a $600bn fund for the International Monetary Fund to ease the troubles in the Eurozone.TESCO'S PRICE DROPS, STANDARD CHARTERED WARNS ON PROFITSTesco was the heaviest faller early on after reporting that like-for-like sales dropped in its UK stores by 0.9% in the third quarter compared to the equivalent period of 2010. The figure excludes income from VAT and Petrol but is in line with the performance during the second quarter. This figure comes despite the group's Big Price Drop campaign which has seen significant discounting. Sector peer Sainsbury was also out of favour. Standard Chartered fell after saying its income for 2011 is now expected to grow at "just below a double digit rate" after a depreciation in Asian exchange rates against the dollar. Previously the bank forecast double digit revenue growth, but today it said it had been hit by Asian exchange rates falling by up to 5% since its third quarter statement.Another profit warning came from 'Imperial Leather' soap maker PZ Cussons, which dropped after warning that overall profit in the six months to the end of November will come in below expectations. The firm said high raw material costs and adverse exchange rate movement had continued to impact margins in the first half of the year.In contrast, Ashtead, the plant-hire group, rose after saying it expects full-year profits to be "substantially ahead" of expectations as underlying pre-tax profit soared nearly 200% for the first half ended 31 October.Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca gained despite saying it will take a one-off restructuring charge of $50-100m after laying off 1,150 jobs from its sales force in the US, as part of its "ongoing strategy to operate its business more efficiently to best serve patients".Cairn Energy and Vedanta Resources were on the rise after completing their transaction which has seen Vedanta buy an additional 30% stake of Cairn India for $4.1bn. Vedanta now holds a 58.5% interest in the Indian oil firm. Cairn, for its part, has announced that it will return $3.5bn to shareholders.BCFTSE 100 - RisersKazakhmys (KAZ) 964.00p +2.44%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 351.70p +2.03%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,255.00p +2.03%Essar Energy (ESSR) 246.10p +1.82%Cairn Energy (CNE) 282.50p +1.69%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,073.00p +1.52%ARM Holdings (ARM) 583.00p +1.39%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,781.00p +1.37%Carnival (CCL) 2,263.00p +1.34%Sage Group (SGE) 292.40p +1.32%FTSE 100 - FallersTesco (TSCO) 390.30p -1.66%IMI (IMI) 764.00p -0.97%Inmarsat (ISAT) 419.90p -0.76%GKN (GKN) 188.50p -0.74%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,445.00p -0.69%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 294.20p -0.44%Capita Group (CPI) 627.50p -0.24%Meggitt (MGGT) 360.60p -0.17%Land Securities Group (LAND) 668.00p -0.15%BP (BP.) 459.35p -0.15%FTSE 250 - RisersAshtead Group (AHT) 202.00p +8.60%Perform Group (PER) 224.00p +5.66%Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 179.90p +2.80%Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 223.70p +2.38%DS Smith (SMDS) 204.90p +2.30%Genesis Emerging Markets Fund Ltd. (GSS) 471.50p +2.28%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 36.51p +2.24%Exillon Energy (EXI) 275.00p +2.23%Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,273.00p +2.17%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 567.00p +2.16%FTSE 250 - FallersPZ Cussons (PZC) 298.00p -13.55%London & Stamford Property Ltd. (LSP) 104.00p -9.72%Betfair Group (BET) 765.00p -3.29%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 11.36p -2.74%Berendsen (BRSN) 406.30p -2.59%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 327.90p -2.58%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 195.40p -2.54%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 451.40p -1.87%Renishaw (RSW) 930.50p -1.85%Home Retail Group (HOME) 88.00p -1.84%