London pre-open: Shares to retreat

7th Jul 2010 07:39

London's blue chips look set to drop once again as investors mull a mixed bag of company results. City experts expects Footsie to give up 45 points after finishing just three points shy of its high point yesterday.High Street bellwether stock Marks and Spencer reported a 3.6% rise in UK like for like sales in the first quarter but said it is cautious about the outlook for consumer confidence and spending. Like for like sales in general merchandise, which includes clothing, were up 6.0% in the 13 weeks ended 3 July, with like for like sales growth in food of 1.5%."We have made a good start to the financial year, but following the recent Budget and the actions proposed to reduce the national deficit, including the increase in VAT, we are cautious about the outlook for consumer confidence and spending and continue to manage the business accordingly," said the group.Anglo-Swiss mining titan Xstrata has given the green light to a huge investment in a brownfield expansion to the Tintaya copper mine in southern Peru. The Xstrata board has approved a $1.47bn investment to develop the Antapaccay copper project, located around 10 kilometres from the Tintaya open pit mine which is expected to be exhausted in 2012.Tullow Oil can proceed with the $1.5bn acquisition of a 50% stake in two big oil fields in Uganda from Heritage Oil after the government gave approval after months of wrangling. Tullow exercised its first refusal rights over blocks 1 and 3A in the Albert Basin in Uganda after Heritage agreed to sell the stakes to Eni of Italy.Storage firm Big Yellow Group said it enjoyed a "robust" quarter with a particularly "strong" June. Annualised store revenue, for the 51 wholly owned stores, rose 9% to £59.8m at 30 June 2010. Total store revenue was £14.4m for the quarter, up 10% from the same quarter last year. Private equity leviathan 3i said its investments are stabilising or improving while the pipeline of investment opportunities looks promising. Investment in the second quarter of 2010 totalled £105m, compared to £79m in the second quarter of 2009. Of the £105m invested, £70m was pumped into the existing portfolio with the remainder going into the group's first investment in Vedici.Enterprise software giant Autonomy has licensed its Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) software to Kraft Foods, the US processed foods giant which last year bought up UK confectionery firm Cadbury. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.International specialist bank and asset manager Investec said it has received a number of approaches from parties interested in acquiring its Rensburg Fund Management (RFM) subsidiary. The business was acquired as part of the takeover of Rensburg Sheppards in June. Investec has appointed Fenchurch Advisory Partners to report on the strategic options for RFM.Carillion said the coalition government's cuts on the Building Schools for the Future programme will not have a "material impact" on the group's orders. It said Carillion is resistant to any potential government cuts in the public sector because only £0.5bn of its £19.7bn order book is expected to relate to probable orders from the public sector.