London pre-open: Stocks set to bounce back

21st Jan 2010 07:16

Despite the shake out on Wall Street overnight, leading shares in London look set to open firmer, with the Footsie tipped to open 20 points or so to the good.Supermarket giant Morrisons reported a 6.5% rise in like-for-like sales over the Christmas period, beating comparable figures from rivals Tesco and Sainsbury. In the 6 weeks to 3 January, like for like sales grew by 6.5% (6.8% including fuel), while total sales excluding fuel were up by 11.2% (10.8% including fuel). The group said it served a record number of customers over the period.London Stock Exchange revenue fell 9% during the third quarter, reflecting ‘testing’ market conditions, particularly in cash equities trading. Revenue dropped to £154.9m in the three months to 31 December, down from £169.4m a year ago, a 12% decline at constant currency, although it’s up 4% on the previous quarter.Water company United Utilities is to cut its dividend to 30p in fiscal 2010/11 from 34.3p as it seeks to conserve cash to meet the requirements of the industry regulator’s price review.Tullow Oil said its Tweneboa-2 exploratory appraisal well, some 6 km southeast of the Tweneboa-1 discovery, has intersected a significant combined hydrocarbon column.Pubs group Enterprise Inns said recent trade has been variable, though Christmas business was strong. The group said there are signs that trade in what it termed its ‘better quality pubs’ is continuing to stabilise. Across the whole estate the year on year decline in average net income per pub eased to around 4% in the 16 weeks to 16 January, from around 8% during the last financial year.