London pre-open: Footsie to top 5900

25th Mar 2011 07:32

London is set to pick up from where it left off yesterday, with City traders expecting the top share index to smash through the 5900 barrier to open at around 5,921, up 40 points.Company news is thin on the ground, however. Yesterday's big news about the blocking of BP's $16bn joint venture with Rosneft came too late to be reflected in the share price performance so that is likely to be the main point of interest in the early going.Euromoney Institutional Investor, the business publisher and exhibitions organiser, is trading in line with expectations and will make at least £40m in the half-year to 31 March. "Sales trends over the past three months have been broadly positive, particularly for the events businesses for which the third quarter is the most important of the year," the firm said Friday.African Barrick Gold has had further successes with its drilling programme on the Nyanzaga project in Tanzania. Infill drilling continues to show good continuity of gold mineralisation throughout the Tusker deposit with further wide zones encountered on several sections.Online gaming company 888 said that the Nevada Gaming Commission has approved the relationship between Dragonfish, 888's business-to-business arm, and Caesars Interactive Entertainment. The ruling relates to state law in Nevada that covers Nevada gaming companies conducting gaming outside the state of Nevada.- - -jh