London pre-open: Shell shines

28th Oct 2010 07:42

London looks set to bounce back at the outset after two days of falls, encouraged by Wall Street's late surge yesterday. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 38 points from previous close of 5,646.Royal Dutch Shell grew earnings by 18% in the third quarter compared with a year ago, while the figure excluding big one-off items rocketed 88% to $4.93bn, well ahead of market forecasts. Earnings, on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis were $3.5bn, up from $3bn a year ago, though that was well below the $4.5bn it made in the second quarter. Mining firm Kazakhmys hailed another solid quarter of copper production and said it remains on course to hit its full year output target. Copper cathode production for the first nine months of 2010 totalled 239 kilotonnes (kt). The company has set itself a target of producing at least 300kt during the course of 2010.Third quarter sales for drugs giant AstraZeneca were much as the market had anticipated, with competition from generic alternatives to its drugs denting sales in the US. Revenue in the third quarter eased 4%, or 2% using constant exchange rates (CER), to $7,898m from $8,200m a year earlier. Underlying profit before tax dipped 10% to $3,083m from $3,437m.