London pre-open: Yesterday's gains to dissipate

14th Sep 2011 07:24

Yesterday's gains are set to be given back at the outset, with City sources predicting the FTSE 100 will open down 46 points from yesterday's close of 5,174.In what it confessed has been a difficult year so far, clothing retailer Next saw half-year sales rise 3% to £1,565m from the year before, while profit before tax jumped 8.5% to £228m. Excluding its Ventura arm, Next is guiding to full-year profit before tax of between £545m and £590m. "Looking ahead to our full year results, we believe that VAT exclusive NEXT Brand sales for the year will be between 2.0% and 4.5% ahead of last year, which would result in NEXT Group profits being up between +0.4% and +8.7% and EPS up between +7.5% and +16.4%," the group said.House building and construction group Galliford Try exceeded its profit expectations last year after putting on a spurt in the second half. Underlying profit before tax rose 34% to £35.1m from £26.1m the year before, on revenue that climbed 5% to £1,284m from £1,222m.Barratt Developments returned to profit (before exceptional costs) for the full year with a pre-tax return of £42.7m, versus a loss of £33.0m the year before. For the first 11 weeks of the current financial year, the house builder's average net private reservations totalled 183 per week, 10.2% above the same period last year.