London pre-open: Buyers to make cautious return

There are signs that buyers might be ready to return to the market after the shake-out of the previous two days, with some pundits suggesting that the Greek government will buckle under pressure from its Eurozone partners not to press ahead with its plans for a referendum on the bail-out package.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 44 points from yesterday's close of 5,422. Fashion chain Next said sales, excluding VAT, were up 3.3% year-on-year in the third quarter, but all of the growth was due to new stores. Sales for the year-to-date are up 3.2% for the year to date. The high street Retail chain saw sales fall 3.3% in the third quarter, while the Directory saw sales rise 16.9%. "We remain confident that we will see no further increase in selling prices in the first half of the year. Early indications are that this trend will continue into the second half of 2012," the company said.Life assurance firm Standard Life saw group assets under administration dive to £191.1bn at the end of the third quarter from £200.0bn at the end of June. Standard Life Investments third party assets under management tumbled to £69.1bn from £71.6bn at the end of June. Long-term savings new business sales were up 10% to £15.5bn from £14.0bn a year earlier after broadly maintained sales in the quarter. Long-term savings net inflows, excluding conventional with profits policies, were up 5% year-on-year to £4.4bn from £4.2bn.In an interim statement light on hard numbers, emerging markets-focused bank Standard Chartered said income in the first nine months of 2011 has grown by a high single digit percentage over the first nine months of 2010. Over the same period, operating profit before tax grew at a double digit rate.