London pre-open: Stocks to beat retreat

27th Jan 2010 07:38

Leading shares are set to open sharply lower after Wall Street gave up a 90-point gain in the last few hours of trade to end flat on the day.Far East markets also continued to fall Wednesday on continuing fears that China is planning fiscal measures to cool growth. Futures prices are currently indicating a 38-point drop for the FTSE 100 when trading starts at 8am.Tullow Oil is likely to be in focus. The oil company wants to raise almost £1bn to fund its exploration and production activities a day after shareholders rubber-stamped its purchase of Heritage Oil's 50% stake in Blocks 1 and 3A in Uganda. It is placing 80.43m shares with institutional investors at an as yet undisclosed price. The shares were trading at £12.16 at last night's close. It predicts additional capital spend of up to $600m over the next three years.Platinum specialist Johnson Matthey expects results this year to come in slightly better than market estimates as recovery comes through in a number of markets. Group sales excluding precious metals for the third quarter were 9% ahead of the same period last year. Operating profit before amortisation was 10% up on the third quarter of 2008/09. Underlying profit before tax was 20% higher than the third quarter.Soft drinks firm Britvic has seen 'robust' market conditions in the last quarter, but said it remains cautious about the outlook for consumer confidence and spending. The group also said that adverse weather conditions in the early weeks of January have resulted in a marked slowing of demand, while sales pressure in Ireland is continuing.Newsagent chain WH Smith reported a drop in sales, but said it remains confident in the outcome for the full year. Total group sales were down 2% with like for like (LFL) sales down 4% for the 21 weeks to 23 January. LFL sales in the High Street division fell by 5% and 4% in the 11 and 21 weeks respectively.Brewer Greene King's trading over the last nine weeks has remained 'relatively strong' despite the freezing weather, with food sales going well and Scottish arm Belhaven again the star turn. After 38 weeks, Greene King Retail like-for-like sales were 4.3% higher. Up to the end of week 35, like-for-like sales were up 5.0%, slightly ahead of previously reported trends. Christmas and like-for-like food sales growth were very strong, though total like-for-like sales growth will moderate through the rest of the financial year.Stockbroker Charles Stanley said third quarter revenue rose 5.2% from the same period a year earlier after seeing a solid performance in all three of its divisions. For the three months to 31 December 2009 revenue rose to £28.4m from £27.0m the same quarter a year earlier.