London pre-open: Stocks expected to tip-toe higher

25th Nov 2010 07:42

London's leading shares are expected to open moderately firmer, with City traders tipping the blue-chip index will open around 14 points higher. Travel firm Thomas Cook is to enter the Russian market through a joint venture with VAO Intourist, a leading Russian holiday company. The British company will own a 50.1% stake in the joint venture, initially paying a maximum consideration of $45m for the stake, to be satisfied through the issue of $35m of Thomas Cook shares with the rest satisfied in cash.The heavily trailed £1.6bn acquisition of Manchester's Trafford Centre will see Peel Group take a 19.9% stake in Capital Shopping Centres. Peel's chairman, John Whittaker, will join the board of CSC as a non-executive director and deputy chairman.PC World owner Dixons Retail posted an underlying pre-tax loss of £7.9m for the 24 weeks to 16 October, an improvement on last year's £17.6m and better than the £10.9m forecast by Nomura Securities. A drop in underlying net finance costs from £23.2m to £16.1m helped.