London open: Better than expected

London has opened stronger than expected despite three-figure losses in the US overnight and a trickle of bad news on Greece and Dubai.UK investors also have Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre-Budget speech to look forward to at lunchtime.Speculation is he'll announce the biggest squeeze in public spending for a generation, with only schools, hospitals and the police being spared average cuts of about 14% over three years, according to the FT.A bank tax is now being talked about as a certainty, but it hasn't stopped both Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds rising to the top of the best performers this morning. A report that a handful of senior traders in a Royal Bank of Scotland joint venture are set to share a bonus pool of more than $40m (£25m) this year may just have made up the chancellor's mind.On the companies front, BHP Billiton has sold its Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia to Canada's First Quantum Minerals for US$340m. The London-listed company said it expects the sale of the $2bn mine, mothballed in January following a slump in the price of nickel and high cost of production, to be finalised in the first quarter of 2010.Standard Chartered is on course for a record year with a strong performance in wholesale banking offsetting lower income in consumer banking, while its exposure to Dubai is not 'material'. "As at the end of November the group has delivered a strong performance with record levels of income and operating profit before tax," it said.Easyjet chief executive Andy Harrison is to stand down from the no-frills airline next June. In a statement, Easyjet said Harrison had indicated his desire to leave the company in order to seek new challenges. Boardroom strife has been dogging the airline for months after founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou launched a fierce attack on the board's strategy.Pre-tax profits fell by more than a quarter at Stagecoach in the six months to October 31 after the rail and bus group was squeezed by reduced demand from recession hit travellers and high fuel costs. Profit before taxation fell to £75.5m from £105.2m the previous year as revenues edged up to £1.08m from £1.05m.Defence and aerospace group Cobham has won a A$170m (£95m) contract to provide flights in support of the US oil company Chevron's operations in Western Australia.Spread bet firm IG Group expects report revenue of around £143m (2009: £126.5m) and adjusted profit before tax of around £77m (2009: £58.2m) for the first half of the year, but costs will be higher in the second half. A better than expected contribution from recent acquisitions Borland and Compuware enable legacy software specialist Micro Focus to lift underlying interim profits by 35% and predict a further improvement in profitability over the rest of the year. FTSE 100 - RisersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 31.16p +2.35%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 54.60p +1.54%Experian Group (EXPN) 606.00p +1.42%Reed Elsevier (REL) 474.10p +1.30%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 555.00p +1.28%FTSE 100 - FallersMan Group (EMG) 304.90p -3.73%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,005.00p -1.95%Rentokil Initial (RTO) 95.45p -1.70%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 75.50p -1.69%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,422.50p -1.01%FTSE 250 - RisersIG Group Holdings (IGG) 355.00p +4.44%Debenhams (DEB) 82.70p +3.37%RPS Group (RPS) 209.50p +3.10%Imagination Technologies (IMG) 223.60p +2.76%FTSE 250 - FallersGame Group (GMG) 111.40p -4.30%Pennon Group (PNN) 490.70p -3.02%Sports Direct International (SPD) 104.80p -2.96%Electrocomponents (ECM) 160.70p -2.61%FTSE TechMARK - RisersVislink (VLK) 20.75p +3.61%Puricore (PURI) 15.75p +3.28%FTSE TechMARK - FallersE2V Technologies (E2V) 59.00p -4.84%Phytopharm (PYM) 11.00p -4.35%Parity Group (PTY) 13.00p -3.85%Filtronic (FTC) 30.00p -3.23%