London open: Gloomy start for blue chips

London has made a gloomy start after last night's disappointing assessment of the US economy by Federal Reserve policymakers.The Bank of England is expected to add to the gloom today if it cuts its estimate of UK growth as is being widely forecast. Only five blue chips are making headway this morning. Diageo is the best performer, otherwise it's pretty much red everywhere. Ex-dividends are also having an adverse impact. BT and RSA are two stocks trading ex-their last dividend today.Hot on the heels of TUI Travel's slump yesterday, package tour operator Thomas Cook has warned that full-year profits will be at the low end of forecasts due to softer UK bookings and the weak euro. "As we enter the final quarter, it is apparent that trading in the UK business is softer than expected and, at current rates, the recent weakening of the euro will have an adverse impact on translation of our euro-based earnings," said chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa.Standard Life has increased half-year profit in line with forecasts as a big increase in net inflows boosted assets under management. IFRS operating profit before tax from continuing operations rose 10% to £182m and European Embedded Value (EEV) profit grew 11% to £364m. Net inflows soared 71% to a record £5.3bn.First half profits rose at support services group and building contractor Balfour Beatty despite lower revenues at its core construction businesses. Pre-tax profits rose to £81m from £65m in the half year to June on revenues of £4.6bn, up from £4.39bn as US acquisition Parsons Brinckerhoff kicked in strongly.Legacy software specialist Micro Focus has slumped after it slashed its sales forecasts for this year after a sluggish first quarter and slow licence sales, though earnings guidance is unchanged.Property repair and maintenance company Rok has suspended its CFO with immediate effect after 'serious failings' at its Plumbing Heating & Electrical business, which will bring underlying pre-tax profit for the year significantly below market expectations. Residential property firm Grainger is trading well, despite slowing house price growth in the last few months. The group said £49.4m of residential sales were completed during the four month period to 31 July 2010, taking total sales in the ten months to 31 July to £128.4m. Nautical Petroleum has raised £30.35m from a placing to help fund its planned exploration, appraisal and pre-development activity until the end of 2011, including work on the potentially lucrative Catcher field in the UK Central North Sea.