London pre-open: US shadow over London

14th Dec 2011 07:33

With the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, deciding yesterday not to pump more funds into its quantitative easing programme London is set to follow Wall Street lower this morning.Although the Fed's decision was not a total surprise, US stocks still shifted sharply into reverse yesterday after the announcement.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 33 points from yesterday's close of 5,490.On the UK corporate front there has been some mixed news, with troubled package tour operator Thomas Cook delivering profits above expectations, while trendy clothing firm Supergroup put the likely impact of its distribution systems snarl-up earlier this year at the higher end of the previously indicated range of £6m to £9m.Thomas Cook made an underlying profit before tax of £175m in the year to the end of September, down from £248m the year before. The market had been expecting profits of £168.5m. Revenue rose to £9.8bn, versus market forecasts of £9.2bn, from £8.9bn last year. Exceptional charges of £573m resulted in a statutory loss before tax of £398m, versus last year's profit of £42m. Crucially, the company said that, despite its well-publicised problems with its refinancing, customers are continuing to book holidays with the company. "Bookings outside the UK were broadly unaffected by news of our refinancing and in the UK bookings have recovered well," said Sam Weihagen, group chief executive of Thomas Cook.Clothing firm Supergroup saw underlying profit before tax ease to £13.0m in the 26 weeks to 30 October from £13.5m at the interim stage last year. Group revenue shot up 51% to £136.1m from £90.3m the year before. The company said that the warehouse system and operational issues that affected its performance have been resolved. The profit impact of the distributions systems foul-up has been put at £8.8m for the full-year.Energy firm BG Group, one of the contracting companies in the giant Karachaganak gas-condensate field in north-west Kazakhstan, said that agreement has been reached for Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas (KMG) to acquire a 10% interest in the project. This will be done by each of the contracting companies transferring 10% of their rights and interest in the Karachaganak Final Production Sharing Agreement to KMG, in return for $3bn in cash. BG's stake will decline to 32.5% to 29.25% as a result.--jh