London pre-open: Footsie eyes 5,200

14th Jun 2010 07:39

Global stock markets are responding to Friday's late recovery in the US when better consumer confidence data outweighed weak retail sales figures.Wall Street had been trading lower when London shut up shop for the weekend, but a surge of buy orders during the last hour of trade had the Dow Jones up 38 by the close.Futures prices are currently pointing to an early 44-point lead for the FTSE 100.News that life insurer Resolution has suspended its shares this morning after confirming it is in discussions to buy AXA's UK life assurance businesses for £2.75bn, may take some of the attention away from BP. The businesses to be acquired are AXA's UK protection and annuities arms and also its group pensions business. The Friends Provident owner will raise £2bn from a pre-emptive rights issue, issue £0.5bn of Deferred Consideration Notes to AXA and pay the rest with bank debt. The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has now cost BP £1.1bn ($1.6bn) and the pressure on the oil giant is likely to intensify over the next few days as Barack Obama prepares to the American people to prepare them for the worst. Over 51,000 claims have been submitted since the MC252 oil well blew up in the Gulf of Mexico in April, and more than 26,500 payments have been made, totalling over $62m (£42m). Most of National Grid's shareholders, 94.2%, have taken up their rights as part of the gas and electricity supplier's £3.2bn cash call announced last month. The fundraising, fully underwritten by Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank, gave investors the chance to buy two rights shares for every five ordinary share held at 335p, a 44% discount. Utility giant United Utilities (UU) is to offload its principal non-regulated water interests in the United Kingdom and Europe to Veolia Water UK. Veolia is paying £174.2m for the assets, of which £108.6m is cash. The assets include UU's 57.8% stake in Sofiyska Voda AD in Bulgaria, its 26.5% holding in AS Talinna Vesi in Estonia, and its 33.2% holding in Aqua Spolka Akcyjna in Poland.Wine retailer Majestic Wine said full year pre-tax profit more than doubled, helped by its takeover of Lay & Wheeler and changes to its minimum purchase rules. For the 52 weeks ended 29 March 2010 pre-tax profit increased to £16.0m from £7.4m the same time a year earlier. Total sales rose to £233.2m from £201.8m before. The figure includes a £12.4m contribution from Lay & Wheeler which it bought in March 2009.Petrofac, the international oil and gas facilities service provider, has bought TNEI Services, a specialist consultancy supporting the energy, power and renewables sectors. Petrofac is paying £7.5m for TNEI, of which 30% is contingent upon senior management's continued participation in the business. TNEI has some 50 staff in Newcastle and Manchester and provides services in the areas of power transmission and distribution, planning and environmental consent and energy management.SuperGroup, owner of the fat growing Superdry fashion label, has signed a franchise agreement with Al Khayyat Investments to open 13 Superdry stores across the United Arab Emirates. The rollout of stores will take three years and begins in Dubai's Deira City Centre complex in July 2010. Two more stores are scheduled to open before the end of the year in Mirdif City Centre and Mall of the Emirates.Cinema chain Cineworld is to go fully digital across its estate in the UK and Ireland. The company has entered into an agreement with Arts Alliance Media (AAM), a leading European provider of digital cinema technology and distribution services, to complete the roll-out of digital projection facilities.