London pre-open: Pause for breath

11th Oct 2011 07:17

London looks set to take a pause for breath after yesterday's strong showing, with City sources predicting the FTSE 100 will crawl into the fifty-four hundreds after closing last night at 5,399. Engine developer Rolls-Royce has been awarded a $99.9m contract by the US Department of Defense Naval Air Systems Command to provide support for the F405 (Adour) engines that power the US Navy's T-45 training aircraft. The deal represents the exercising of an option by the US Navy to extend the existing contract into a third year. Internet and catalogue shopping firm N. Brown saw profit before tax rise 5.9% to £44.8m in the 26 weeks to August 27th on revenue that rose 4.0% from a year earlier to £363.7m. However, like-for-like sales in the six weeks to October 8th are down 1.5% on a year earlier.Egyptian gold miner Centamin's total gold production in the third quarter of 2011 totalled 50,539 ounces, up 67% on the corresponding quarter of 2010 and 5% higher than the second quarter of 2011. Centamin remains on track to reach its target production of 200-210,000 ounces at a cash cost of around $550 an ounce in 2011.--jh