London pre-open: Stimulus hopes to boost Footsie

16th Aug 2012 07:26

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 17 points from yesterday's close of 5,833, boosted by hopes of further economic stimulus from central banks across the globe. Overnight China revealed that its foreign direct investment declined 8.7% to $7.6bn in July, compared to the same month the previous year, meaning the pressure is on for the government to take action to stimulate economic growth.On the company news front, revenue from generic drugs fell in the first half at Hikma Pharmaceuticals, but branded products more than picked up the slack. Overall, revenue in the first half of 2012 rose 34.8% to $532.3m from $394.8m, helped by contributions from recent acquisitions. Organic revenue growth was still a solid 7.6%, however. Publishing group Reed Elsevier has announced the appointment of Duncan Palmer as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), having lured him away from US company Owens Corning. Palmer will take over from Mark Armour, who is retiring at the end of the year. Prior to working for building products supplier Owens Corning, Palmer worked in a number of senior finance roles for Royal Dutch Shell in the UK, the Netherlands and the US.Shareholders of software group Micro Focus are in for a windfall of 50p per share after the company proposed a cash return and share consolidation on Thursday. The cash return, which will cost Micro Focus $130m in total, is subject to shareholder approval and will be implemented by way of a B and C share scheme.NR