London pre-open: Cautious start expected this morning

19th Aug 2013 07:31

Markets are expected to open tentatively on Monday morning with London's FTSE 100 unlikely to rebound strongly despite suffering back-to-back weekly losses over the last two weeks.This follows a choppy session in Asia where ongoing concerns about a tapering of stimulus by the Federal Reserve continue to dampen risk appetite. These worries saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average in New York register its worst weekly fall of the year last week.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up around six points from yesterday's close of 6,499.99."The markets appear to be lacking any real direction at the moment, as improving data out of Europe continues to be overshadowed by increasing expectations that the Fed will begin winding down its asset purchase program in September," said Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari.He said: "We may get some indication as to whether this is the case when the minutes from the June meeting are released on Wednesday evening. The minutes of the final meeting before September's could give an indication about how many members are pushing for a rate cut in September, what conditions are necessary to convince them that September is the time to begin tapering and how much they intend to cut by." Stocks to watch AMEC confirmed it has approached Kentz about a possible offer to acquire the engineering and construction business. The consultancy, engineering and project management company has proposed a cash offer of 565p to 580p per Kentz share, representing a premium to the current share price.Vedanta Resources announced over the weekend that it has completed the merger of two of its subsidiaries, Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries. The move has created Sesa Sterlite, the seventh largest global diversified natural resources major on the basis of EBITDA.  FTSE 250 homebuilder Bovis Homes saw profits jump by nearly a fifth in the first half and gave an upbeat outlook for the rest of the year with demand being supported by the government's 'Help to Buy' scheme. Profit before tax totalled £18.6m in the six months to June 30th, up 19% on the £15.6m reported the year before.