London pre-open: No Wall St. hangover

11th Aug 2011 07:31

London looks set to ignore last night's shake-out on Wall Street and head higher at the outset, with City traders predicting the Footsie will open with a triple digit gain.US benchmark indices each tumbled more than 4% overnight, on fears over the health of the US economy and also the future of France's AAA rating. Both factors might expect to cast a shadow over the UK's prospects but London's traders seem in the mood to hunt for bargains again following last week's bhuge sell-off.Anglo Pacific notched up a record level of royalty income in the first half of 2011, despite adverse weather conditions in Australia. The global natural resources royalties company said royalty income in the first half of the year rose to £16.4m from £15.7m in the first half of last year. Second quarter royalty income was lower year-on-year, however, at £6.5m compared to £11.1m in the second quarter of 2010.Morgan Sindall, the construction and regeneration group, has secured a major regeneration scheme contract in Chester city centre, with a total development value of approximately £115m. Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury said book sales in July and August picked up from soft trading earlier in the year, with many bookworms opting to download their summer reading rather than opting for paper copies. The release of the latest Harry Potter film has stoked demand for all seven books in the series, Bloomsbury said.