London pre-open: Dull start foreseen despite Glaxo verdict

15th Jul 2010 07:38

After London put in a strong finish yesterday there were hopes that the market would resume its advance today but last night's middling performance by US stock markets appears to have put paid to those hopes. Traders are expecting the FTSE 100 to open lower, probably by around 16 points.A cloud over drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has been lifted. A joint advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration has voted to allow Glaxo's lucrative diabetes drug Avandia to remain on the market. In a separate statement today, Glaxo also revealed that it expects to record a legal charge for the second quarter of 2010 of £1.57bn.Global information services company Experian saw improved performance across all its geographic regions except the UK & Ireland in the May to June period. Revenues grew 7% on a constant exchange rate basis while organic revenue growth was 6%.Tullow Oil has found oil at its Nsoga-5 appraisal well, which is located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 2. The group said the well has successfully encountered 10 metres of net oil pay after it was drilled to a total depth of 587 metres.Premier Oil has reported a rise in average production in the first six months of the year and said it has increasing visibility on longer-term production growth.Mother and baby products retailer Mothercare reported a 4.1% decline in first quarter UK like for like sales while international sales soared 20.3%. Overall group sales were up 0.4% during the 15 weeks ended 10 July.Information management specialist SDL has purchased automated translation firm Language Weaver. SDL is paying $42.5m (£28.2m) in cash for the US firm.