London pre-open: Sell-off predicted

19th May 2010 07:40

It looks like being a bloodbath in early deals as investors react to last night's decision by German authorities to ban naked short-selling in European public debt and top bank stocks.City experts predict London will lose a quick 89 points after Wall Street racked up a triple-digit loss overnight and Asian markets followed suit.Profit before exceptional items fell 5% at interdealer broker ICAP in the year to 31 March, down to £333m from £350m in 2009. Revenue rose 1% to £1.6bn. "Our overall business is in good shape and is more broadly based than it has ever been,2 said chief executive Michael Spencer. "We have made a good start to the new financial year, with volatile conditions creating more active markets."Scottish & Southern Energy has increased full-year underlying profit by 3%, in line with expectations, and added a quarter of a million new energy customers during the period. The UK's second-biggest electricity producer reported adjusted profit before tax rose to £1.29bn in the year ended March 2010 from £1.25bn last time. It's targeting annual dividend growth of at least 2% above inflation in each year to 2013.A "dramatic turnaround" in the UK commercial property market saw Land Securities swing strongly back into the black last year with a big increase in the value of its portfolio compared to last year's write-downs. In the year to March, the value of Land Securities' investment properties increased by £863m or 10.3% with shareholders' adjusted diluted net assets up by 16.5%. Basic net asset value rose by 17% to 750p. Profits came in at £1.06bn against a loss of £4.77bn.Shares in plant hire specialist Speedy Hire fell as it reported a full year adjusted pre-tax loss and said while it was encouraged by stable levels of recent trading, there remained many difficult months ahead. For the year ended 31 March 2010 the group reported an adjusted loss before tax of £6.2m compared with a restated profit of £33.4m in 2009. Sales fell to £351.1m from £482.7m the same time a year before. Net debt was reduced by over 50% to £119.3m.