London pre-open: Firm start foreseen

5th Mar 2010 07:48

Spurred on by Wall Street's solid performance yesterday UK equities are set to open the day on a firm footing with traders predicting the blue-chip index will open at around 5,550 compared to last night's close of 5527.WPP has been hit hard by the recession and slump in advertising spend, but headline profit before tax fell less than expected during a “brutal” 2009 and there was an encouraging return to stability in January. Headline profit before tax for the 12 months to 31 December fell 16%, or 24% at constant currency, to £812.2m, although analysts had expected something nearer £780m.Profits slumped by 85% last year as recruiter Michael Page felt the full force of the recession, though some of its markets are starting to recover and its expects an improvement this year. Revenue for 2009 was down 26.3% at £716.7m (2008: £972.8m) and by 31.5% allowing for weak sterling. Pre-tax profits crashed to £21.1m from £140.1m.Raw materials provider Glencore International has confirmed it will exercise its option to buy back the Prodeco thermal coal operations in Colombia from Xstrata for $2.25bn, plus any profits accrued but not distributed by Xstrata since 1 January 2009. Xstata bought the operations from its major shareholder, Glencore, in January 2009 for $2bn.Investment trust giant Foreign & Colonial saw its net asset value per share jump 18.8% to 304.7p in 2009, despite a 13.1% fall in the value of its private equity portfolio. Net asset value total return was 21.3%, below the returns of the trust’s benchmark and its close peer group, where the returns were 23.4% and 27.9% respectively.Hochschild Mining's executive chairman Eduardo Hochschild has bought the miner's 36.9% stake in Zincore Metals for C$10.3m. The firm acquired the Zincore stake with acqusition of Southwestern Resources in May 2009, but now says it does not constitute a core asset for the company.