London pre-open: Modest rise forecast for FTSE ahead US jobs data

3rd May 2013 07:19

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up five points from yesterday's close of 6,461, ahead of an announcement from the US on monthly employment data which is widely expected to show the economy is dragging. The stall is expected despite Thursday's news that initial jobless claims for the week ended April 27th declined by 18,000 to 324,000 (seasonally adjusted), the lowest number since January 2008. US markets stormed ahead yesterday after the jobless claims data and the ECB's announcement that it opted to lower its main interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 0.5%. On today's agenda is data on UK PMI Services and official reserves, while abroad data will be released on US goods orders, ISM non-manufacturing and ISM services, in addition to the monthly unemployment rate and non-farm payrolls. In today's UK company news, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) saw its bottom line improve substantially in the first three months of 2013 as the preceding quarter was hit by a number of one-off costs. The group reported an operating profit before tax of £826m in the first three months of the year, compared with a loss of £2,227m in the fourth quarter of 2012. Electra Private Equity has announced that it has received a binding offer from funds advised by BC Partners for Allflex Holdings, its largest investment. The offer, which values Afflex at over $1.3bn, would result in gross proceeds to Electra of $398m. Approval must now be sought from the relevant works council in France and several other regulatory bodies. Laird reported a drop in first quarter revenue on Friday as the technology group experienced a weakness in business to business (B2B) markets. Revenue for the quarter came to £119m, a 2.0% fall from £112m the previous year as a poor performance in B2B offset a pick-up in the rate of design activity and design wins.