London pre-open: Leading shares stalled

28th Sep 2010 07:33

London looks set for a flat opening, continuing the lack of direction seen for much of yesterday's session.Hedge fund manager Man's first half profits will fall by a fifth to $215m as performance fees dwindled after a tough half for its flagship AHL fund. Funds under management have stabilised recently and the end of September were up over the previous three months to $39.5bn from $38.5bn.With just days to go until its year-end, newspaper publisher Daily Mail and General Trust expects the full-year result to be at least in line with the City consensus. Underlying revenue rose 2% during the 11 months to the end of August, but fell 7% on a reported basis, although trading remains "robust" and the business to business (B2B) and consumer media businesses report underlying growth.Irn-Bru maker AG Barr achieved sales growth well in advance of the market in the first half of its financial year. Total turnover in the six months to 31 July rose 13.9% to £119.2m from £103.7m in the corresponding period of 2009. Underlying profit before tax increased by 18.8% to £16.0m from £13.5m the year before.The picking over of the bones of collapsed Connaught Group continues with British Gas owner Centrica acquiring the assets of Connaught Compliance, Connaught's gas and electricity services business. Centrica is paying £11.2m for the business which will add around 400 service engineers and more than 20,000 commercial customers to British Gas's operations.