London pre-open: Moody's warning to hit FTSE 100

14th Feb 2012 07:29

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 19 points from yesterday's close of 5,906, following Moody's warning that a number of European countries, including Britain, could see their triple-A ratings slashed as a result of the increasing risks posed by the ongoing debt crisis in the region. InterContinental Hotels Group has whacked up the full year dividend by 15% after it continued to outperform the hotel industry in key markets such as the US and Greater China in 2011. Revenue in 2011 rose 9%, or 7% on a constant exchange rates (CER) basis, to $1,768m from $1,628m in 2010, ahead of market expectations of $1,761m. Operating profit surged 26% (CER:25%) to $559m from $444m the year before, and underlying earnings per share rose 32% to 130.4 cents from 2010's 98.6 cents.Power systems developer Rolls-Royce has bagged a contract from Fiji's national airline, Air Pacific, a new customer for the UK company. The order, worth $210m at list prices, is for Trent 700 engines to power three Airbus A330 aircraft.Mining peers BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have both approved a major investment to ramp up production at the Escondida copper project in Chile worth over $4.5bn. Escondida is 57.5% owned by BHP, 30% owned by Rio, while JECO Corporation has a 10% stake and JECO 2 owns 2.5%.