London pre-open: London set to pause for breath

17th Nov 2009 07:42

London is expected to follow the lead of Asian markets and open lower this morning, despite a strong showing overnight by US stocks.Traders expect the FTSE 100 index will open down around 20 points from last night's close.Telephone giant Cable & Wireless is to demerge into two separately listed companies by next March and will raise £200m through a convertible bond issue to help fund the split.The retail side of Burberry outperformed the wholesale side as the luxury fashion group reported a rise in half-year revenues, thanks to favourable exchange rates. Total sales were up 6% to £572.4m from £539.1m a year earlier, but with the favourable movements of exchange rates stripped out, were down 5%. Profit before tax slipped to £78.4m from £97m. Product quality and safety tester Intertek said the rate of organic revenue growth is slowing, as expected, in the second half of the year. Total year on year revenue growth for the January to October (inclusive) period was 28%, or 8% using constant exchange rates (CER). Organic revenue growth at CER was 4%.Specialist business publisher Informa said in a trading update for the 10 months to 31 October that its publishing activities remain resilient and that its events business has not seen any worsening in trading.Tenanted pub group Enterprise Inns posted a sharp fall in profits after a difficult year for the pub trade and said it expected profits to continue declining in the short term. Pre-tax profits for the year to September 30 fell to £208m from £263m on revenues that dropped to £811m from £880m.Brighter news came from housebuilder Barratt, which has confirmed the improvement in the UK housing market and forecasts its prices will have risen by up to 10% over the year.