London pre-open: Small drop ahead

12th May 2010 07:38

The Footsie is expected to drop slightly when it opens to a new Conservative government after David Cameron was appointed Britain's new prime minister last night.Cameron, the country's youngest prime minister for almost 200 years, will head a coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats after a day of more dramatic twists and turns at Westminster.In a speech outside No 10 Downing Street, Cameron said he would form a "proper and full coalition" with the Lib Dems to provide "strong, stable government".Tullow Oil says it has continued to perform "very strongly" in 2010 and remains "very positive" about the outlook for the year. Significant progress has been made on the Ugandan pre-emption and farmdown, the Jubilee Phase 1 development project in Ghana remains on track for first oil in the fourth quarter and the Tweneboa-2 appraisal well has established Tweneboa as a major oil and gas-condensate field. Kesa Electricals reported a 1.2% drop in like for like sales in the period from 9 January to 30 April as a positive performance at its larger French operations failed to offset weakness at the Comet retail chain. Darty France's like for like sales increased by 0.5%, excluding the Darty Box, though Comet's revenue dropped by 4.0% on a like for like basis. Software group Micro Focus expects to report total revenues of approximately $432m ($274.7m) for the last six months after a 'solid' end to the period. Group EBITDA margin, excluding exceptional items and stock based compensation, for the same period, is expected to be approximately 40% for the full year, the firm added.Wellstream is trading in line with expectations and said the level of award activity currently being experienced, particularly in Brazil, gives it confidence in the outlook for the business. The group, which designs and manufactures flexible risers and flowlines for the oil and gas industry, said its order book has improved since the year end with a number of key awards, particularly in Brazil.Housebuilder Barratt expects to report an underlying profit in the second half of its current financial year after a pick-up in both prices and forward reservations. For the six months to 30 June 2010 its average selling price increased by around 15% on the prior year equivalent period and will be at least 10% up for the full financial year.Catering giant Compass expects a strong new business pipeline and a stabilisation in like for like volume to deliver modest organic revenue growth during the second half. The firm grew profit before tax by 19% to £459m during the first six months and underlying profit by 14% to £462m.