London pre-open: Footsie to climb higher

17th Mar 2010 07:41

Footsie is expected to make further progress in early dealings following strength on Wall Street late yesterday.Military decoy specialist Chemring has radioed in a 5% increase in trade during the four months to the end of February at constant currency despite taking a hit from snow storms in both the UK and US. It said deliveries were affected in January and February as bad weather disrupted production in most of its US and UK subsidiaries, although the impact will be recovered in the next two to three months.Black cab maker Manganese Bronze is to cease production of bodies and chassis at its Coventry plant with the loss of 60 jobs after more heavy losses in 2009 and further losses forecast this year. The group is also considering a further fund raising to fund vehicle assembly less than a year after it raised £9.4m.Vehicle hire group Northgate reported an improvement in utilisation rates of its fleets in the four months to 28 February in the UK and Spain. In the UK, it achieved an average utilisation rate of 91% during the period, a 5% improvement on the rate achieved for the same period the previous year.