London pre-open: FTSE tracks US stocks lower

16th Apr 2012 07:30

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 10 points from Friday's close of 5,652, taking their lead from stocks in the US and Asia. Investetor sentiment has also taken a knock from rising bond yields in Spain, giving rise to renewed concerns over the Eurozone. AMEC, the engineering consultant focused on the resources industry, is on track to deliver double-digit percentage underlying revenue growth in 2012, despite the continued macro economic uncertainty. The strength of order intake, the continued demand for AMEC's services and the ongoing customer investment in AMEC's core markets are driving growth expectations, the company said.Engineering data and design information technology systems provider AVEVA put in a strong finish to the financial year just ended, driven by strong demand from the oil and gas industry. The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region continued to perform strongly in the second half of the year, the group said, while the group's Latin American operations were once again the star performers in the Americas. Mining giant EVRAZ said that consolidated crude steel production increased by five per cent from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012 as growth in Russia, North America and South Africa offset declines in output in Ukraine and Europe. The firm produced 4.325m tonnes of crude steel in the first three months of the year, compared with 4,136m tonnes in the preceding quarter (+4.6%) helped by the completion of maintenance works at EVRAZ ZSMK steel mill in Russia, EVRAZ Pueblo and Regina in North America. However, when compared with the first quarter of 2011, output fell by 1.4%.