London open: Early gains for Footsie

Footsie has shrugged off a sluggish performance in the US overnight and is now pushing ahead again.Hedge fund manger Man is the best performer after a bullish trading update. "Investor sentiment is continuing to improve across the industry, the performance outlook is healthy and the prospects for sustained industry inflows are very promising," chief executive Peter Clarke said. Engineer Smiths is also going well despite pre-tax profits dipping to £371m from £380m in the year to July on sales up 7% to £2.67bn. The figures were a little better than forecasts, while it held the dividend. Fashion and food retailer Marks & Spencer posted a 0.5% fall in like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to 26 September as recession-hit shoppers stayed frugal. Chairman Sir Stuart Rose said he remains cautious on the company's outlook and expects 2010 to be a tough year.A rush of last-minute bookings helped Thomas Cook trade well over summer, the travel company said. The firm added that winter bookings have improved since August. 'Summer trading is finishing in line with expectations underpinned by a strong lates market and the popularity of the package holiday,' chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said.Support services specialist Babcock has lost its contract with Network Rail for High Output Track Renewal operations, but trading overall is as expected. Network Rail told it today that its Babcock SB Rail joint venture with Swietelsky Baugesellschaft had lost the contract, it said. Travis Perkins, the leading UK builders' merchant, said sales trends for the last three months are ahead of expectations but its current market consensus for 2010 remains unchanged. The group said turnover for the nine months to the end of September is down 11%.Care group Care UK could be on the end of a management buy-out after private equity firm Bridgepoint confirmed this morning it was in talks.Online clothes retailer ASOS results to date are in line with management's expectations and it expects the first half outcome to be marginally ahead of the prior year. Sales are up 47% for the 6 months to 30 September 2009, with international sales rising 110% for the period, which represents around 25% of total sales.