London pre-open: Modest rally expected

18th Jun 2009 07:43

The recovery in equity prices seen late in the afternoon session on Wall Street yesterday has encouraged traders in London to expect a modestly firm opening on this side of the pond, with the FTSE 100 tipped to open around 16 points higher.Dairy Milk chocolate maker Cadbury has left its revenue growth guidance for the full-year unchanged and said it has built on its good first quarter with improved trading in April and May. The confectioner enjoyed strong sales in its UK homeland, offsetting difficult trading in Ireland and the European mainland.Bus and train group Go-Ahead has continued to grow like-for-like (LFL) bus and rail revenue in the last two months. The company has seen a £10m increase in fuel costs but this has been recovered through a combination of fare increases and consumption savings. Fuel requirements for the next financial year have been secured via hedging arrangements at 47p per litre, up from 43p per litre this year.Pub group and real ale brewer Marston’s announced a fully underwritten 11 for 10 rights issue to raise gross proceeds of approximately £176m. The group also said like-for-like sales in Marston's Inns and Taverns were up 1.1 % in the 16 weeks to 6 June 2009 and pre-tax profit before exceptionals for the year to October is expected to be not less than £69m.Software company Micro Focus has seen off the prospect of a rival bid for Borland by improving the terms of its offer for the legendary US software company. Micro Focus is now offering $1.15 per Borland share, up from its previous offer of $1 per share. The terms value the entire issued share capital of Borland at about $88m.Engineer GKN has proposed a 6 for 5 rights issue to raise £423m and said it posted a pre-tax loss for the first five months to May. Management said sales for the five months to May totalled £1,794m. In the same period, it achieved a trading profit on a management basis of £1m and a management loss before taxation of £25m. However, the group delivered a management profit before taxation of £8m over the period from 1 March to 31 May.Road and infrastructure support group Mouchel warned that its performance for the current year will be below previous expectations.