London pre-open: Footsie to regain lost ground

8th Mar 2011 07:41

It looks like UK shares could recapture pretty much all of yesterday's losses in early trade as oil prices pull back from 29-month highs.Futures prices indicate a 15-point gain for the FTSE 100. US light crude for April delivery is currently down $1.60 at $103.84 a barrel. Saudi Arabia and others are going to raise output to keep the global economic recovery on track.In company news, Old Mutual has been through the mill this last six months, but strong growth in new business sales, cost cutting and favourable exchange rates pushed profits up by 14% in 2010. Adjusted operating profit before tax rose to £1.48bn from £1.3bn at constant currency, or £1.13bn as reported, up 31%. Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) sales rose 7% to £1.49bn. They were up 28% in the UK. "We have made some significant operational progress and we expect 2011 to be a year of further delivery," chief executive Julian Roberts said. Copper miner Antofagasta is to pay a huge special dividend after profits last year smashed through the $1bn mark as output rose and prices soared. The Chile-based group will pay out 116c per share in total for 2010 including a special payment of 100c. In 2009, it paid 23.4c with a 14c special. Net profits last year rose by 58% to $1.05bn, from $668m, on revenues up by 55% at $4.58bn from $2.96bn.Global engineering solutions provider Weir Group enjoyed record margins in 2010 as order input rose by almost two-fifths from the year before. Order input, calculated using average exchange rates for 2010, rose 39% £1,904m in 2010 from £1,366m in 2009, and was up 36% on a like for like basis. Underlying pre-tax profit rose 58% to £295m from £187m in 2009, on revenue that climbed 18% to £1,635m from £1,390m the year before.Online betting exchange operator Betfair said its core revenue rose by 6.2% in the third quarter of its financial year from a year earlier. Core Betfair sports revenue in the three months to 31 January rose 8.6% year on year (yoy) to £56.6m, games revenue rose 8.2% yoy to £14.3m but poker revenue fell 20.5% yoy to £5.2m. "We are pleased with the growth we achieved in the third quarter, especially from football and games," said Betfair's chief executive officer, David Yu.