London pre-open: FTSE set to edge higher in wake of dovish Fed

The UK's blue chip index is expected to tack on between 13 and 17 points to yesterday's large gains, financial bookmakers said, as traders digest and react to the surprisingly dovish policy statement from the US Federal Reserve overnight.The US central bank opted to omit any reference to being "patient" when starting to tighten interest rates.However, the 17 members of the Federal Open Market Committee nearly halved their median projection for the level of the Fed funds rate at year-end 2015 to 0.625%. Estimates from Fed's rate setters for the following two years were also lowered.Before the meeting some hedge-fund managers had publicly warned the monetary authority should be extremely careful on how it proceeds with this new phase in the interest rate cycle.The communiqué from the Fed and follow-up conference from Chair Janet Yellen saw the euro/dollar register its large intraday gain since 2000, no less. Prompt month Brent crude futures were catapulted 5% higher on the news. The main Wall Street market gauges all closed higher by approximately a full percentage point.Stocks to watchUK clothing retailer Next grew its underlying pretax profit by 12.5% last year as overall sales rose by 7.2%. The company said its share buyback scheme meant that underlying EPS grew by 14.7% and dividends for the full year will increase by 16.3%, to 150p.Electronics components distributor Premier Farnell reported adjusted profits before tax down 3% to reach £74m in 2014 but maintained its full-year dividend payout at 10.4p. That came on the back of a 0.8% fall in full-year revenues to £960.1m. However, the company's operating margins declined by less than forecast by analysts, slipping by 40 basis points, to 9.2%. The analyst consensus was for margins of 9%.AstraZeneca has signed an agreement with Japanese-headquartered company Daiichi Sankyo to jointly commercialise a new drug called Movantik, an oral treatment for opioid-induced constipation in adults with chronic non-cancer pain. No longer labelled a controlled substance by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, its launch has been scheduled to take place early in April 2015.