London pre-open: Reports of increased bailout fund boosts FTSE

26th Mar 2012 07:37

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 18 points from Friday's close of 5,855, following reports that Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has agreed temporary measures to increase Europe's bailout fund in a bid to soothe troubled markets. A US court has dismissed AstraZeneca's lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which sought to delay the marketing approval of genetic copies of a quetiapine drug. SEROQUEL and SEROQUEL XR tablets, also known as 'quetiapine fumarate', are an antispsychotic drug used in the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. Fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management has seen investors continue to return to equity markets in 2012. Assets under management at the end of February stood at £184.4bn, up from £173.9bn at the end of 2011. Of the £10.5bn increase, £1.4bn was accounted for by net new business, with equities products seeing net inflows of £2.5bn, compensating for net outflows in other parts of the business.Irn-Bru maker AG Barr's full year results were slightly ahead of expectations, with the Scottish group's exotic juice brands, Rubicon and KA showing particularly good growth. Underlying profit before tax rose 6.2% to £33.6m in the year to end of January from £31.6m the year before, slightly ahead of the £33.41m the market had been expecting. Sales continued to outperform the soft drinks market and grew 6.6% to £237.0m (2011: £222.4m).