London pre-open: Lively start expected

20th Jul 2009 07:38

This week's likely to start where we left off on Friday, with decent gains on the back of a late recovery on Wall Street at the end of last week.Futures prices are currently indicating an early rise of about 30 points.Life insurance consolidator Resolution has insisted that any deal with Friends Provident must see it take control of the enlarged company. Replying to Friends' offer of a merger on its terms last week, Resolution chairman Mike Biggs insisted any deal could only work if there was an "an unambiguous change of control from one company to the other." Resolution also sweetened its offer to increase its appeal to small shareholders by offering to pay cash for the first 2,500 of any shareholding and will pay a 2009 annual dividend.Property website Rightmove says the average asking price for a house rose 0.6% in July to an average £227,864, narrowing the annual rate of decline to 3.1% from 5.5% in June. It's the fifth rise in the past six months. Prices jumped 1.4% in Greater London to £402,761. Heavy price promotions helped Domino's Pizza lift sales in the half year to 26 June by 15% from a year ago to £196.4m in spite of the tough economic environment. The pizza delivery group also reported pre-tax profits jumped 25% to £13.6m. The dividend rises 30% to 3.5p. Russia-focused gold miner Peter Hambro called a 54% hike in first half attributable gold production "very pleasing" and predicted the traditional uplift in second half output. Production hit 222,600 ounces in the six months to 30 June versus 144,600 a year earlier. It sold 210,000 ounces of gold, up from 118,800, at an average $917 an ounce.Property fund manager Capital & Regional has seen further falls in the value of its portfolios in the last three months, though occupancy level were broadly unchanged. NAV of the 16.7% owned Mall fund fell by 9.3% to 23.8p between March and June. The 13.4% owned Junction fund NAV fell by 4.4% to 23.7p, while the 19.4% owned X-Leisure fund fell by 2.7% to 40.3p.