London pre-open: Slightly lower start for FTSE

9th Jan 2012 07:13

London is set to open little changed, with optimism held in check by a statement from James Bullard, President of the Federal Reserve bank of St. Louis, which appears to put the kibosh on a new round of bond purchases by the US Federal Reserve in the immediate future. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 4 points from Friday's close of 5,649.Bullard said that in view of Friday's "encouraging" US jobs data, the Fed probably will not embark on a new spate of quantitative easing. On the UK equities front, like-for-like (LFL) sales growth continued at supermarket chain Morrisons over the final six weeks of 2011, albeit at a slower rate than in the third quarter. The company said LFL sales, excluding fuel, were up 0.7% on the corresponding period of 2010; including fuel, LFL sales growth was 3.7%. In the third quarter, like-for-like sales (which strips out new stores openings) were up 2.4% (5.8% including fuel).Anglo-American drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline and US counterpart Theravance said the phase III registration programme for the once-daily investigational medicine Relovair in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been completed. Additionally, all but one of the pivotal studies in patients with asthma have been completed.Credit checking firm Experian has announced the death of Paul Brooks, its Chief Financial Officer. He died suddenly over the week-end at his home in California.NR