London pre-open: Winning streak to continue

12th Jul 2010 07:49

It looks like London could extend its winning streak to five sessions after Wall Street rallied Friday afternoon, with futures prices indicating an early 11-point gain.BP will be in focus again. It said the cost of the clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico has risen to $3.5bn from $3.12bn a week ago and $2.65bn at the end of June, although some say that figure could eventually hit $70bn. The first half of August remains the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will be completed and kill operations performed, the company said.But press coverage suggesting both Exxon Mobil and Chevron have received White House approval to launch a bid for BP will get the market excited Monday.Meanwhile, strong online sales and a boost from the World Cup helped pizza delivery firm Domino's post another bumper set of results. Profits jumped 30% to £17m, from £13.1m, in the half year. That's ahead of consensus of £16.5m. Sales for the 26 weeks ended 27 June 2010 grew by 20.8% to £237.1m (2009: £196.4m).Rio Tinto has referred Canadian miner Ivanhoe's breaches of a private placement agreement to arbitration following its adoption of the shareholders rights plan. The mining heavyweight, which recently increased its stake in Ivanhoe to 29.6%, has warned Ivanhoe before it adopted the plan would breach Rio Tinto's contractual rights. But Ivanhoe directors went ahead and adopted the plan on April 6 over Rio Tinto's "strong objection".Oil industry services giant Petrofac has won its first production enhancement services contract in Romania after tying up a deal with Petrom, which owns the Ticleni oilfield and its eight satellite fields. Petrofac will provide production enhancement services to Petrom, Romania's biggest oil and gas company, as part of an initial 15-year contract, which begins immediately and includes an option for extension by a further 10 years. Around 300 of the 1,000 wells at the Ticleni onshore field in South-western Romania are currently producing a total of some 4,500 barrels of oil per day.Thomas Cook has agreed to buy Öger Tours, a well-known German tour operator specialising in package holidays to Turkey, from its founding shareholder Vural Öger for about €30m. The consideration will be paid in cash. In addition, other businesses owned by the seller have agreed to provide Thomas Cook with agency and accommodation services in Turkey worth €2.5m at no cost.