London pre-open: LTRO sparks slight rise in FTSE opening

2nd Mar 2012 07:32

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open slightly higher, up five points from yesterday's close of 3,931, as the European Central Bank's long term refinancing offer (LTRO) soothed investor jitters. Mario Draghi, ECB President, has said the bank is "reasonably satisfied" with the €529.5bn in cheap loans it will offer to European lenders, adding that he believes the troubled zone is on its way to recovery. Electricity group International Power (IPR) and French utilities firm GDF SUEZ (which owns 70% of IPR) have announced that IPR-GDF SUEZ Asia has signed 30-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) for two 220MW geothermal projects with the Indonesia state-owned utility, PLN.Pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) expects to create the number one vaccines company in Japan after forming a joint venture (JV) with Japanese peer Daiichi Sankyo. The JV, in which each company owns an equal 50/50 stake, will supply globally recommended vaccines to help protect people of all ages in Japan, GSK said. Engineering group IMI has raised its full-year dividend by 15% after seeing double-digit growth in both revenues and adjusted profits in 2011. Revenue jumped 12% from £1,911m to £2,131m, ahead of expectations of £2,120bn. Meanwhile, adjusted pre-tax profit (before exceptional items such as restructuring costs and acquired intangible amortisation, etc.) increased by 19% from £304.4m to £363.4m. Reported pre-tax profit, however, fell 2% to £301.4m.