London pre-open: FTSE to rise ahead of Spanish bonds auction

19th Apr 2012 07:24

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 24 points from yesterday's close of 5,745 as investors look ahead to today's important sale of Spanish debt in an auction that looks set to raise as much as €2.5bn through the sale of two and ten year bonds. Ladbrokes' reliance on gaming machines to drive revenue growth at its High Street betting shops was again in evidence in the first quarter, while it seems to have had a better Cheltenham race festival than most of the punters who use its services. Group net revenue in the first three months of 2012 was 8.9% higher than in the first quarter of 2011. Revenue at the UK shops was up 9.0% on a year earlier, driven by a 21.7% advance in revenue from gaming machines. Money taken over the counter in the traditional manner was up 0.5% from a year earlier.Hargreaves Lansdown, the financial services provider and asset management group, saw a record level of Assets under Administration (AuA) in the three months to March 31st despite the tough macro-economic conditions. Total AuA increased to £26bn, up 11% on the £23.4bn reported in the three months to December 31st 2011, in comparison to the FTSE All-Share Index which rose by just 5.1%.There is no news yet from real estate investment trust Hammerson on its proposed sale of its London office portfolio, but the group did say there has been a high level of interest in the assets. In its interim management statement, Chief Executive David Atkins revealed that during the first quarter of 2012 the group agreed leases with rents in excess of estimated rental value, while occupancy remains ahead of management's 97.0% target at 97.1%.