London pre-open: Wall Street provides tailwinds

21st Apr 2011 06:59

Another stonking performance by Wall Street overnight means the revival in London looks set to continue, with City traders tipping the top share index will crash through the 6,000 barrier and open around 36 points higher at 6,058.Strong trading in the nine weeks to 27 March leave Sports Direct confident that it will meet its profit targets for 2010/11. The sports shop operator said total sales were up by 10.3% from the same period a year ago at £236m, with gross profits climbing by 7.3% to £88m.It was a soggy first quarter for mining giant Anglo American which saw rainfall hinder production of iron ore, metallurgical coal and copper, though output of platinum, nickel, thermal coal and diamonds increased.The total value of new sales reservations taken in the year to date has increased by around 12% when compared to the same period last year, house building firm Persimmon said. "Our order book, including legal completions already achieved this year, now stands at a similar level to last year at £1.14bn," it added.---jh