London pre-open: Selling seen on Chinese surprise

10th Mar 2011 07:41

Surprisingly weak data out of China this morning is set to knock London back below 5,900.China posted a trade deficit of $7.3bn in February compared with the usual surplus, due mainly to the shutdown of factories during the Chinese New Year holiday, and higher commodity prices.That looks like slicing almost 50 points off the FTSE 100 first thing.In company news, supermarket Morrisons beat expectations in 2010 as its reputation for value had hard-pressed shoppers flocking to its stores. Underlying pre-tax profits totalled £874m for the year, ahead of estimates and up from £767m the previous year. Turnover climbed by 7% to £16.5bn.It expects higher taxes, government spending cuts, inflation and rising unemployment to continue weighing on consumer confidence in 2011, but says its value offering leaves it well positioned to deliver further profit growth.It was a "good" 2010, Standard Life confirmed today, with net adjusted inflows up 46% and the insurer says it's made a strong start to 2011. Excluding volatile and lower revenue yield UK money market funds and India cash funds, net inflows jumped to £8.3bn, with long-term savings net flows up 77% to £4.7bn. The UK's fourth-largest insurer reported IFRS operating profit before tax from continuing operations grew by 7% to £425m, and core European Embedded Value (EEV) increased 24% to £629m.Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail Group has lowered full year profit guidance as trading remains tough, especially at Argos. The guidance range for the year just finished has been lowered to between £250m and £255m,versus market consensus of £260.9m. "There are clear signs of further pressures on consumer spending, with recent trading conditions, particularly at Argos, proving to be more difficult and volatile than we anticipated," said boss Terry Duddy.Struggling pubs group Punch Taverns claimed its turnaround campaign remains on track, with strong sales growth in its managed estate in the second quarter while trends in the leased estate improved in the second quarter. In a statement covering trading for the 12 weeks to 5 March, Punch said its managed estate enjoyed like for like (LFL) sales growth of 8.6% from the corresponding period a year earlier. That raised LFL sales growth for the first two quarters of the group's financial year up to 4.9%.