Date: Wednesday 15 May 2013
LONDON (ShareCast) - City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up five points from yesterday's close of 6,686, likely to be driven in part by utilities giant Severn Trent, which has this morning brushed off a bid approach from a consortium of foreign investors, saying it completely undervalues the firm.
The UK water company said that it had met the consortium - comprising of Canadian infrastructure investor Borealis, the Kuwait Investment Office and Universities Superannuation Scheme - on Tuesday for the first time to discuss a possible offer.
Other important factors for the FTSE today include Royal Dutch Shell going ex-dividend and the Bank of England's prediction for inflation, which is due to be release at 09:30. The figure is widely anticipated to forecast a lower figure (3.0%) than had been put forward the previous quarter (3.2%).
In UK company news, easyJet narrowed its half-year losses as the low-cost airline took initiatives to boost revenues and cut costs. Loss before tax for the six months to March 31st 2013 came to £61m, a 45.5% drop from the prior year’s loss of £112m. Revenue grew 9.35 to £1.6bn from £1.4bn, driven by competitor capacity retrenchment, returns focused changes to easyJet's network and improvements to revenue management system.
Atkins, a design, engineering and project management consultancy, has announced that its joint venture (JV) with Veolia Water and Costain has selected as a capital delivery partner for Thames Water. The group is expected to deliver a "significant proportion" of the £3.0bn AMP6 investment programme.
Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds (GGOWL), which is 50% owned by FTSE 100-listed utilities group SSE, and Fluor have reached agreement on all of the outstanding claims relating to the construction of the Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm, an update issued by SSE has shown.
In economic news elsewhere, the day's agenda includes US capacity utilisation, crude oil inventories, industrial production, and the producer price index, as well as EU flash estimate GDP and German GDP.
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