London pre-open: Markets subdued ahead of central banks' statements

12th Jan 2012 07:33

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 8 points from yesterday's close of 5,670 ahead of today's European Central Bank and Bank of England interest rate announcements. 'Must do better' is the theme of Tesco's Christmas trading statement, as the UK's leading supermarket chain reported UK sales (excluding fuel but including Value Added Tax) in the six weeks to January 7th were down 1.3% year-on-year on a like-for-like (LFL) basis. Tesco said its LFL sales performance was below its expectations, and it was not alone in this; broker Nomura Securities had forecast a fall of 1.0%.Cash and carry operator Booker saw like-for-like (LFL) sales rise by 6.7% in the 16 weeks to December 30th from the corresponding period of 2010, with customer numbers and average spend per customer both up year-on-year. Non-tobacco LFL sales rose by 5.8% and tobacco LFL sales by 7.6%. Total sales in the quarter were up 7.0% on the same quarter of 2010, with fruit and vegetable sales up 17%.As expected, part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has revealed a massive shake-up to its investment banking and wholesale businesses, including a mass employment reduction of 3,500. The changes - which include an exit from its cash equities business, corporate broking, equity capital markets and its mergers and acquisitions unit - will start immediately and take up to three years. NR