London pre-open: Flat start in store

5th Jan 2010 07:39

London is expected to open little changed Tuesday as investors pause for breath following yesterday's rally to a 16-month high.High street retailer Next could get a cheer after it increased full-year profit forecasts again in response to better than expected sales in the run up to Christmas. Sales for the 22 weeks to Christmas Eve jumped 4.6% at Next Retail and by 3.2% on a like for like basis, including direct sales, and by 1.6% excluding them. Next Directory sales rose 6.8%. Profits for the year to 31 January will be between £490m and £500m.In further evidence that things may be improving on the high street, John Lewis reported record sales over the Christmas and New Year period, beating its previous best of £500.7m posted in 2007.Meanwhile, Fortnum & Mason, the luxury department store on London's Piccadilly, upped like-for-like sales rise by more than 10% in the first three weeks of December.Kraft Foods is to bump up the cash element of its bid for UK gum and chocolate company Cadbury. Kraft has sold its North American pizza business to Swiss foods behemoth Nestle for $3.7bn, and intends to use most of the proceeds of the sale to fund a partial cash alternative to its offer for Cadbury shares, worth 60p a share.Premier Oil has agreed with Serica Energy that it will farm-in to a 50% equity interest and assume operatorship of Block 22/19c in the UK Central North Sea. Block 22/19c contains the Oates and Bowers Palaeocene prospects. The Oates prospect is an amplitude supported stratigraphic trap, targeting the Forties sandstone reservoir.Balfour Beatty said Hong Kong-based infrastructure contractor Gammon Construction, in which the support services contracting firm has a 50% shareholding, has been awarded two new contracts valued at HK $2.27bn (£180m). These contracts are for the redevelopment of the Victoria Park swimming pool complex, valued at HK$930m (£74m), along with a HK$1.34bn (£106m) contract to construct Kennedy Town Station and overrun tunnels for MTR Corporation.