London pre-open: Flat start in store

16th Jun 2009 07:41

The UK market is set to start little changed Tuesday as most of last night's gloom on Wall Street had already been felt by the time London closed yesterday.There's bound to be heavy focus on Britain's biggest supermarket chain Tesco following its latest sales update.UK like-for-like (LFL) sales growth came in at the top end of expectations, helped by a resumption of growth in non-food sales. Excluding petrol and VAT, UK LFL sales in the 13 weeks to the end of May rose 4.3% from a year earlier. Analysts predicted 3.5% to 4.3%. International sales jumped 20.1% at actual exchange rates and rose 11.4% using constant rates.Recession bit hard into Whitbread's latest quarter with sales at Premier Inns tumbling as businessmen stopped travelling. Like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to 28 May fell by 2.7% as Premier struggled. Total sales rose by 2.5%. Revenues at the hotel chain slumped by 7.9%, and were down by 9.6% on an available room basis. But Costa coffee chain sales were up 18.5% year on year and by 2.6% like-for like. Excluding airports, Costa's like for like sales grew by 4.5%. Pub restaurants' like for like sales increased by 2% with like for like covers up 2.6%. Tullow Oil's Kigogole-3 exploration well in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 2 has found oil. The well encountered over 20 metres of net oil pay in two separate zones, with a 5 metre total net reservoir section above the 15 metre main reservoir interval. "This latest result further extends the play and de-risks several adjacent prospects located in Blocks 1 and 2, which are scheduled for drilling later in the year," Tullow said.Mike Hussey, the managing director of the London portfolio of property giant Land Securities is to leave the company at the end of June. The company said the decision for Husssey to step down from the board and leave the company was by mutual agreement, following a major change in the strategic direction of the company. During the time Land Securities was preparing to split itself into three quoted companies Hussey had been lined up to be the chief executive of one of those companies, but the company has since abandoned its demerger plans.Full-year profit from health and sensor group Halma came in as expected, towards the bottom end of forecasts, following weaker order intake during the second half. Profit before tax and amortisation of acquired intangibles on continuing operations rose to £79.1m in the 12 months to 28 March 2009, up from £72.8m a year ago. Market estimates were for between £79m and £84.5m. Organic growth was 5%. Revenue from continuing operations was 15% better at £455.9m. The final dividend rises 5% to 4.78p a share.Kesa Electricals, best known in the UK for its Comet electricals stores, has confirmed it is in talks to sell off its Swiss operation. The company is in exclusive negotiations with Swiss electrical retailing chain FUST, which is interested in buying Kesa's Swiss operations for SF20m (£11.4m). Kesa said the sale will not result in a paper loss for the group.US focused oil group Nighthawk has scrapped the $10.9m deal to sell finance group San Severina a 20% working interest in the Jolly Ranch prospect in Colorado. Nighthawk said payment of the initial consideration was due by 15 June 2009 and no payment from San Severina has been received.