London pre-open: Equities spin their wheels

31st Aug 2011 07:24

US equities may have rallied after the release yesterday of the minutes from the last meeting of the Federal Reserve's rate setting committee, but London's traders seem disinclined to get too excited, with spread betting sites indicating the top-share index will nudge up 8 or 9 points at the opening.The Fed's policy makers considered stimulus measures to kick-start the world's biggest economy, with some members of the Federal Open Market Committee feeling a "more substantial move" was warranted. Tesco has suffered a rare failure and is getting out of Japan. The supermarket colossus is to sell its business in Japan, having concluded that it cannot build a sufficiently scalable business.Oil and gas outfit JKX saw profit before tax slide to $32.7m in the first half of 2011 from $49.1m the year before, on revenue that edged up 3% to $107.8m. The company said that despite schedule delays, production at its Russian interests is expected to start by the end of the year.Bwin.party, the online gaming company, saw pro-forma revenue down 3% to €398m in the first half of 2011, due mainly to competitive pressures in the poker market. Pro-forma clean earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation from continuing operations slipped 21% to €81.9m from th year before.