London pre-open: Asian stocks to drag FTSE lower

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 13 points from yesterday's close of 5,714, tracking declines seen in Asian stocks after the Chinese government announced that he wanted local authorities to keep property procie control policies tight. A third set of gains in the US is not thought to be enough to prevent the FTSE from losing around half of the points advanced yesterday.

Reported revenues at telecoms giant Vodafone declined in the first quarter with unfavourable foreign exchange movements in Europe providing a drag. Nevertheless, the group said that trading was in line with expectations and the outlook for the full year is maintained. Group revenue totalled £10,767m in the three months to June 30th, down 7.7% year-on-year. However, on an organic basis, revenues actually increased by 1.0%.

Close Brothers Group has said that difficult trading conditions for its Winterflood business continued to affect its overall performance during the five months ended June 30th, but said the Banking division delivered another strong performance in the period. The Banking loan book increased a further 10% to £4.1bn (31 Jan 2012: £3.8bn) and is up 20% in the financial year to date. The Securities division continues to experience difficult market conditions and within this Winterflood has been affected by low retail investor risk appetite throughout the period. The Asset Management division is nearing completion of its restructuring and made a small loss as expected.

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Anglo American, one of the largest mining companies in the world, saw volume growth across most of its portfolio in the second quarter, with the exception of platinum and diamond production. "Successful project execution and asset optimisation delivered volume growth in iron ore, metallurgical coal, export thermal coal, copper and nickel," the group said in a statement on Friday. The firm said that growth projects delivered in 2011 have continued to ramp up well.