London pre-open: Small loss predicted

Big gains on Wall Street last night count for nothing this morning as futures prices point to a slightly lower start for London.

The Dow Jones added 115 points yesterday, but early indications are for a 30-point pullback on Wall Street at the opening bell. Last night's fourth quarter numbers from IBM beat forecasts, but investors wanted more.

Over here, BHP Billiton set half-year production records for petroleum, iron ore, nickel and zinc, but expects 'some degree of volatility' in the short term outlook for its commodities. The December quarter enjoyed strong price recovery, driven by demand in China and restocking in the developed world. But uncertainty about the speed of recovery in the developed economies, the impact of the eventual withdrawal of government stimulus and China's measures to control loan growth, mean the coming months could be choppy, it says.

Consumer electronics retailer Kesa Electricals saw like for like sales revenue dip slightly year on year in the final two months of 2009. Total sales revenue in the period from 1 November to 8 January was up 1.3% from a year earlier, or 0.7% higher in local currency, but like for like sales in local currency were 0.3% lower, largely due to a tail off at the group's Comet stores.

Charles Scott, chairman of William Hill since 2004, is to stand down as the bookmaker reported healthy trading in the final three months of 2009. Gross win margins for the full year returned to the normal 17-18% range. Group net revenue rose 6% in Q4 and is expected to be up 4% for the full-year. EBIT should be £250m, it says.

Oil explorer Soco is looking to raise over £100m through a placing to help fund an 'exceptionally active' drilling programme this year. The firm will place about 7.2m shares or 9.6% of its shares in issue through a book-building sale today. Soco added that the potential impact on reserves and production from this year's development, appraisal and exploration programme is larger than anything it has undertaken to date.
Latin America-focused miner Hochschild Mining hailed a record year of production as it announced output levels for the final quarter of 2009. It reported production of 28.2m attributable silver equivalent ounces in 2009. Boss Miguel Aramburú has targeted 29m silver equivalent ounces for this year.