London pre-open: Stocks set to fall ahead of US jobs data

6th Jul 2012 07:38

With a key jobs report from the US expected later this afternoon, European markets are expected to open lower; yesterday's measures by central banks in the UK, Europe and China to boost growth have clearly failed to lift sentiment. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 14  points from yesterday's close of 5,693.  Having promised on Thursday that it would raise money from disposals, insurance giant Aviva has moved quickly to act on that pledge by saying it will sell more of its stake in Delta Lloyd than originally intended. The original plan was to offload up to 25m shares in the Dutch insurer by way of an accelerated book-building operation in the market but demand has been so strong the size of the disposal has been increased to up to 37m shares, equivalent to up to 21% of Delta Lloyd's issued ordinary share capital.Food, ingredients and retail firm Associated British Foods (ABF) is to buy ethnic flour brand Elephant Atta from Premier Foods, the company announced on Friday. Elephant Atta, established in 1962, is being purchased by ABF's ethnic food subsidiary Westmill Foods for a cash consideration of £34m. RGI International, the AIM-listed developer of residential and retail properties in and around Moscow, has been given the go-ahead by the state to construct a kindergarten in the in the Krasnagorsk Region, near Mitino. The school is part of phase one of the residential project Micro city 'V Lesu', "the best product currently on the market," according to RGI's Chief Executive Officer Andrey Nesterenko.BC