London pre-open: Stocks to follow Wall St. higher

13th May 2011 07:45

Wall Street's rebound yesterday on the back of a rally in commodity prices looks set to give London an early boost, with City traders predicting the blue-chip index will open around 28 points higher at 5,973.Oil services group Petrofac says it is "increasingly confident" that it will deliver profit growth in line with previous guidance after a strong performance so far this year.Bourses operator London Stock Exchange hailed a 22% increase in adjusted operating profit, and said a packed pipeline of new issues promises more to come.Adjusted operating profit in the year to 31 March rose to £341.1m from £280.3m the year before, on revenue that grew 2% to £615.9m from £605.6m the year before. The median consensus forecast for the LSE's revenue was £640.9m, while investment analysts had pencilled in a figure of £314m for operating profit.Full year expectations remain unchanged at Dignity, the UK's only listed funeral care provider, after the group saw underlying operating profit increase by more than 10% in the first quarter.---jh