London pre-open: Footsie to inch higher

2nd Nov 2009 07:37

London's blue chips are expected to open marginally higher with banking shares likely to be in focus early on.Royal Bank of Scotland is close to an agreement with the government over its proposed participation in the toxic asset protection scheme (APS) and also confirmed weekend reports it will have to divest some of its businesses to meet EU rules. The 70% state-owned bank said " It expects the agreement on the APS to reflect market improvements since February and RBS's ongoing recovery whilst giving protection against future potential stressed case losses".Irish budget airline Ryanair warned that it may cancel existing orders if it does not agree a deal on new aircraft from Boeing as it reported an 80% increase in half year net profits. Support services firm Babcock has bought nuclear site management UKAEA from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Babcock has paid £38m for UKAEA, a company which generated £32m of revenue in the year to 31 March 2009. Power solutions provider Chloride saw pre-tax profit in the half year to 30 September tumble 41% to £10.4m from £17.6m a year earlier, on sales that edged up to £152.7m from £152.3m. Randgold Resources is keen to bring the renamed Kibali mine into production as soon as possible with a definitive timeline for development to be completed by January of next year.Data centre provider Telecity said revenue has been in line with management expectations in the second half of the year. All parts of the group are contributing to revenue growth, resulting in strong operating profit improvement, given that Telecity's cost base is largely fixed.