London pre-open: Shift in investor focus sparks lower start for FTSE

21st Feb 2012 07:26

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down by around 11 points from yesterday's close of 5,945, as investors shift their attention to the challenges that lay ahead in getting both the Greek and the wider Eurozone economy back on track. Some analysts seem to be attaching particular importance now to whether or the country´s debt swap will be successful or not and if credit default swaps on Greek debt will be triggered or not. As well, some observers are now asking the difficult question of whether enough has been done or not. The euro/dollar is slightly higher, moving up by 0.14% to 1.3250. On the company news front, SEGRO, forever doomed to be referred to as the company formerly known as Slough Estates, saw earnings per share on a European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) basis move up in 2011, although net asset value per share fell back. EPRA earnings per share rose 7.6% to £18.4m from £17.1m the year before, despite the company posting a loss before tax of £53.6m compared to a profit of £197.2m the year before. Net asset value per share dipped 5.7% to 345p from 366p at the end of 2010.Engineering and project management services outfit AMEC is returning pots of cash to shareholders, emboldened by the strength of its order book and the positive outlook for the markets it serves. The group bumped up the total dividend for 2012 by 15% to 30.5p and announced a £400m share buy-back programme. Revenue for 2011 at £3,261m, while up 11% on 2010, was below the £3,273m expected by the market.Following the results of drilling, wire-line logs and sample of reservoir fluids, oil and gas giant Tullow Oil has confirmed that one of its exploration wells offshore Sierra Leone has successfully encountered hydrocarbons.NR