London pre-open: Weakness overseas to weigh

29th Oct 2010 07:36

A poor session in Asia this morning and unconvincing display on Wall Street overnight aren't going to help London on Friday it seems.The blue chip index is set to open down around 12 points, with the Japanese Nikkei losing 2% after some disappointing earnings and on worries about next week's US Federal Reserve meeting to decide quantitative easing strategy.Over here, British Airways swung to a profit in the first half as the airline improved yields and cut costs. It made a pre-tax profit of £158m in the six months ended 30 September compared a loss of £292m a year ago. Revenue jumped 8% to £4.45bn due to improved yields - up 17% - and operating costs fell 1.5% as lower non-fuel costs outweighed higher fuel spend. Passenger revenue grew 8% on capacity down over 6%.Fund manager F&C Asset Management halted the recent outflow of funds in the past three months, but cautioned business may be weaker to the end of the year. Assets under management rose to £108.2bn from £95.3bn at the end of June. "While we are making good progress in our institutional business..., institutional asset flows remain lumpy from quarter to quarter. After a strong third quarter we currently anticipate weaker headline institutional asset flows in the fourth quarter," FCAM said.Ad agency WPP upped like-for-like revenues by 4.1% in the first nine months of its current year as companies restarted advertising spending after the recession. Total revenue rose by 6.3% to £6.69bn with third quarter sales up 12.2% to £2.3bn. Operating margins, both before and after incentives, also improved over last year in the third quarter and a result, full year margins should exceed the group's margin target of 1.0 margin point improvement, WPP said.AstraZeneca will receive a $100m upfront payment from Daiichi Sankyo after agreeing a deal for the co-promotion and supply of Nexium, a proton pump inhibitor, in Japan. The Anglo-Swedish drugs giant will co-promote the product, used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and stomach ulcers, once it is approved for use in Japan, making and developing the product, while Daiichi Sankyo will deal with distribution.