London pre-open: Decent start predicted

13th Dec 2010 07:34

London is expected to make decent progress in early dealings with futures pointing to gains of about 30 points for Footsie from its Friday close of 5,813.Oilfield services firm Wood Group expects results for the year to 31 December 2010 to be slightly ahead of expectations. The Aberdeen-based firm saw continued progress at most of its key divisions. Its Engineering unit secured a number of awards during the year, as it order book continues to strengthen, the group said in a statement. Also in oilfield services, reports this morning suggest General Electric is poised to seal a £755m-plus takeover of Wellstream, the UK oil and gas services group. A third offer from GE is understood to be substantially higher than 750p a share but less than 800p, the FT reported.Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) has given short shrift to a proposal by David Simon, chairman and chief executive of US Mall owner Simon Property, that the US group subscribes to a sale of up to 205.5m of Capital Shopping shares priced at 400p each to fund the £1.6bn Trafford deal. "Completely impracticable," is CSC's response.De la Rue has appointed Tim Cobbold as chief executive and an executive director of the company, starting in January. He joins De La Rue from Chloride Group.Home sellers slashed their asking prices by nearly £7,000 this month as they struggled to attract the attention of picky buyers, according to figures published today by the Rightmove property website.