London pre-open: Modest lift seen at outset

13th May 2009 07:43

Encouraged by Wall Street's late rally yesterday London looks set to open on a positive note. Expectations are for the FTSE 100 to rise around 20 points at the outset.Strong demand for its ‘basics’ range has helped supermarket giant J Sainsbury deliver better than expected full year profit. Underlying profit for the year to 21 March leapt 11.3% to £543m, ahead of the £527m predicted, while a 6% hike in revenue, excluding VAT, to £18.9bn was in line with forecasts. Like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, but including VAT, rose 4.5%.Property giant Land Securities saw its net asset value slashed by two-thirds in 2008 in what it described as ‘unprecedented market conditions.’ Basic net asset value (NAV) per share slumped to 639p at the end of March 2009 from 1,862p a year earlier, while adjusted diluted NAV per share tumbled to 593p from 1,763p. The group’s property portfolio took a £4,744m dive, after sliding £1,293m the previous year.Insurer Legal & General has reported a 3% rise in worldwide new business during the first quarter of 2009 and a “modest improvement in its estimated IGD surplus to £1.6bn.Oil and gas group BG has strengthened its ties with China National Offshore Oil Corporation and agreed a joint liquefied natural gas (LNG) project development Agreement focused on BG Group's Queensland Curtis LNG Project in Australia. Under the deal, CNOOC will purchase 3.6m tonnes per annum of LNG for a period of 20 years from the start-up of QCLNG, which is being developed by BG subsidiary QGC.Housebuilder Barratt's order book has risen by 70% since the start of 2009, but the group is still cautious over the market with demand held back by lack of mortgage availability.Property company Hammerson has sold the last of its property in Germany, raising gross proceeds of €70m.Bumper sales of hot cross buns helped bakery chain Greggs put in a solid performance over Easter. The group, with over 1,400 retail outlets in the UK, increased total group sales in the 19 weeks to 9 May 2009 by 5.2%, including like-for-like sales growth of 2%.