London pre-open: Footsie targets 5,100

25th Sep 2009 07:37

The blue chip index is expected to claw back about a third of yesterday's 60-point loss early on after Wall Street narrowed its deficit in late trade overnight.Pittsburgh is likely to steal many of the headlines today as G20 leaders attempt to cobble together a cap on bankers' bonuses among other things.But there's still plenty of interest in equity markets this morning. Tate & Lyle expects operating profit for the half year to be broadly in line with last year, but the sugar and sweeteners group cautioned that a number of its markets remain challenging. Demand from food and beverage customers has proved resilient, though it has continued to experience challenging conditions in EU Sugar and industrial ingredients.There's a 'significant risk' that nightclub operator Luminar will miss full year expectations after a grim few months at the end of the first half sent like for like sales down 5.9% in the 26 weeks to 27 August. They fell 4.5% when adjusted for the late August bank holiday. September has been even worse, especially weekend admissions. Avalon, a company owned by Permira Advisers, has reached an agreement to buy Just Retirement for about £229.6m. Avalon will pay 76p for each share in Just Retirement, which today posted a full-year loss of £3m.Sales remain under pressure at plumbing supplies distributor BSS with the group still predicting little pick-up before the end of the year. Total revenue for the 25-week period ended 19 September was £608.7m, 3.9% down on last year on an equivalent trading day basis, with a like-for-like decrease of 6.9%, BSS said.Business publisher Euromoney said it expects to announce forecast beating pre-tax profits in the year ended 30 September. The group said adjusted pre-tax profit will be no less than £57m for the year, down on last year's £67.3m but ahead of expectations.