Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 14 points from yesterday's close of 5,498, tracking gains in the US and Asia. On Wednesday the index closed almost flat, following a far worse than expected GDP figure for the June quarter, news which counter-balanced any positive effect from comments by ECB council member Ewald Nowotny, who said in an interview with Bloomberg that there were arguments in favour of issuing a banking licence to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), giving it the right to borrow from the ECB. Worth noting, and with a view to next week´s two day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, "market chatter" has investors positioning themselves for possible further policy measures from the Federal Reserve. Of interest back in the UK, the Financial Times comments this morning on the possibility that the United Kingdom could lose its AAA rating following yesterday´s exceptionally weak gross domestic product growth data. No less relevant, remarks from US Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday in which he appears to deflect responsibility for not having acted on suspicions of possible weaknesses in the setting of LIBOR rates to the full range of appropriate authorities in Britain. Ratings agency Egan Jones has cut its rating on Italy´s sovereign debt to CCC+ from B+ before. Energy provider Centrica cranked up a healthy increase in underlying profits in the first half of 2012, though the company admitted that its performance had been flattered by unusually low levels of consumption in the UK in the first half of last year. Underlying profit before tax rose in the six months to the end of June to £1,258m from £1,144m the year before. Once exceptional items and certain re-measurements are factored in, the rise in profits becomes even more eye-catching, with the 2012 figure of £1,679m well ahead of the 2011 figure of £1,176m.Power systems group Rolls-Royce saw moderate growth in both underlying revenues and profits in the first half and said that its expects 'good' growth across 2012 as a whole, though it did experience weakness in the Marine and Energy markets. Underlying revenue increased by 5% from £5.46bn to £5.76bn, helped by 5% growth in underlying OE revenue (£2.72bn) and 6% growth in underlying services revenue (£3.04bn).Lloyds Banking Group's underlying half year profit increased £715m to £1,064m, with fall in income more than offset by cost and impairment charge reductions.