London pre-open: Footsie to creep ahead

17th Feb 2011 07:38

Last night's two-year high on Wall Street and further gains in the Far East this morning look like nudging London up a couple of points in early trade.There's also the usual stampede of company results.B&Q owner Kingfisher expects full-year profit to be at the top end of expectations after strength in the international business helped the DIY retailer shrug off weather and economy-related difficulties in Britain and Ireland in the fourth quarter. Like-for-like sales in the UK & Ireland were flat for the three months compared with a year ago, broadly in line with expectations, while total sales were up by 0.6% to £954m.Analysts had been predicting a consensus adjusted pre-tax profit of £666m for the full year, in a range between £661m and £672m.Things improved at business and academic publisher Reed Elsevier during 2010 and a "gradual" recovery this year should deliver "modest" growth in 2011. The Anglo-Dutch firm revealed adjusted profit before tax for the 12 months was flat at £1.28bn, as were sales, unchanged at £6.06bn. But the company achieved organic revenue growth of 2%, much better than last year's 6% decline, pointed out chief executive Erik Engstrom.Defence firm BAE Systems is expecting sales in 2011 to dip as cutbacks in government spending start to bite. The company saw sales edge up by 1.8% in 2010 to £22,392m from £21,990m in 2009. The market had pencilled in a figure of £22,548m for sales. Underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation improved to £2,214m from £2,197m the year before, while underlying earnings per share (EPS) climbed to 40.8p, versus market expectations of 41.85p, from 40.1p the year before.Total funds under management (FUM) exceeded £15bn for the first time ever at wealth management firm Rathbone Brothers last year. Underlying profit before tax in 2010 rose 18.8% to £38.5m from £32.4m in 2009, topping the consensus market forecast of £35.55m. Total FUM at the end of the year stood at £15.63bn, up 19.3% from £13.10bn at the end of 2009.