London pre-open: Yesterday's gains to be surrendered

13th Oct 2011 07:21

The top-share index is set to give back most of yesterday's gains despite a firm showing last night by Wall Street and rises this morning in Asia. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 37 points from yesterday's close of 5,442.The market shake-out in August had a predictable effect on assets under management (AuM) at Hargreaves Lansdown in the third quarter of 2011. The wealth manager saw AuM slide to £22.3bn from £24.6bn at the end of June, but was pleased to report net new business inflows of £0.68bn, up 24% on the corresponding quarter of last year, in what is traditionally the firm's quietest period of the year. Revenue was up 27% on a year earlier to £57.2m. The number of clients using the firm's Vantage service rose by 8,000 to 388,000. The number of active accounts held by these clients increased from 585,000 to 597,000.Cash and carry outfit Booker saw total sales rise 8.5% from a year earlier in the 23 weeks to September 8th. Like-for-like sales (LFL) were up 6.5% from the year before, with LFL tobacco sales up 8.8% and LFL non-tobacco sales up 5.1%. Profit before tax jumped 22.0% to £45.0m from £36.9m the year before.Newsagents WH Smith reported a record profit performance from its Travel segment in the year to the end of August. Profit before tax rose 4% to £93m from £89m the year before. Total group sales were £1,273m (2010: £1,312m) with like-for-like (LFL) sales down 5%. Travel sales grew by 1% to £455m, down 3% on a LFL basis. High Street sales were down 5% at £818m and down 6% on a LFL basis (excluding entertainment, LFL sales were down 3%). --jh