London pre-open: Libya preoccupation persists

23rd Feb 2011 07:39

London still has Libya on its mind and is set to open lower with City traders suggesting a 25 point fall in the Footsie could be seen when the market opens.Consumer packaging giant Rexam grew underlying profit by a bigger than expected 45% in 2010 and expects further progress this year. Profit before tax and exceptional items jumped to £412m from £285m in 2009 on sales up 2% to £4.96bn. Net asset value per share surged 15% to 390p from 339p a year earlier at Capital Shopping Centres while net rental income improved by 4%, or 2% on a life for like basis, in 2010 to £277m from £267m in 2009. Revenues picked up in the fourth quarter to enable software group Logica to recover some ground lost earlier, though sales and profits overall still came in flat last year. Full year 2010 revenue rose by 1% pro forma to £3.7bn, with fourth quarter sales up 4%. Profits were unchanged over the previous year at £272m, though the dividend rises by 27% to 4.2p.Housebuilder Galliford Try has been encouraged by sales in the first few weeks of 2011, while the end of 2010 was not so bad either. The company declared a 29% improvement in underlying pre-tax profit to £17.0m for the six months to 31 December 2010, from £13.2m the year before (2009: £6.4m after exceptional charges).