London pre-open: Solid start expected

28th Jul 2010 07:34

Traders expect London's blue chips to open around 16 points higher Wednesday morning on another busy day for company results.Centrica is heading for more controversy over energy prices after the British Gas owner's underlying interim profits jumped 65%. Earnings in the half-year to June rose by 65% to £886m from £537m on revenues of £11.7bn, barely changed from the previous year. Pre-tax profits did even better, soaring from £218m to £1.33bn.BG had delivered a "good" set of second quarter results with revenue up 18%. Operating profit rose 6% to $1.53bn on revenue up to $4.13bn from $3.49bn. Exploration & Production chipped in $746m, up from $728m in 2009, but less than the $825m expected by Charles Stanley. It was better at the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) operations, where profit grew to $540m from $465m. Charles Stanley had penciled in $525m. Profit before tax fell to $1.03bn in the second quarter, down from $1.37bn in 2009, due to $443m of impairment charges. British American Tobacco upped its dividend by a better than forecast 19% and said it expect another year of good growth in both earnings and dividends. The tobacco firm upped the dividend from 27.9p last year to 33.2p at the interim stage. Broker Charles Stanley expected a rise to 33.1p. Pre-tax profit rose to £2,279m in the six months to 30 June, up from £2,123m in the first half of 2009. Tullow Oil announced that the Ngiri-2 appraisal well, which is located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 1, has encountered over 40 metres of net oil bearing reservoir in two zones within an overall 131 metre gross oil bearing interval.