London pre-open: FTSE to extend Tuesday's gains

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up three points from yesterday's close of 6,432, extending Tuesday's gains into near record territory, buoyed by an all time high recorded on the Dow Jones Industrials index in the US last night.UK stocks have been propelled upwards by a combination of comments out from the Federal Reserve, a raft of upbeat company results, and a better-than-expected reading on the Markit/CIPS service sector purchasing managers index for the month of February. Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to 14,254, its highest level in its 116-year history. An 8.8% rise for the index so far this year means that it has now surpassed levels reached more than five years ago before the financial crisis ripped through Wall Street. Helping lift sentiment was the release of a better-than-expected ISM services index, which rose from 55.2 to 56 in February, ahead of the 55.0 forecast. "A slowly improving US economy and a pledge by the Chinese to increase their fiscal deficit to ensure a 7.5% growth rate, while still low by historical standards, helped further turbo charge markets yesterday, in the wake of the dovish comments by Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen late on Monday," explained Senior Market Analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets. In UK company news, Legal & General (L&G), the FTSE 100-listed financial services group, hiked its dividend by a fifth after a strong rise in profits and record sales in 2012. The company proposed on Wednesday to pay shareholders a final dividend per share (DPS) of 5.69p, up 20% from the 4.74p paid out in 2011. This brings the full-year DPS to 7.65p, also up 20% from 6.40p previously.African Barrick Gold (ABG) has announced that its Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Jennings, has informed the company that he intends to leave the group in order to take up a similar role at another miner. The current Vice President of Finance, Jaco Maritz, will assume the day-to-day responsibilities of CFO. Jennings will remain with ABG as part of the team overseeing the completion of the initial stages of the operational review.Translation and communications software firm SDL has acquired mobile web solutions company bemoko, to enhance its existing capabilities to deliver dynamic content to any device. "Combined, SDL and bemoko will deliver the most progressive omni-channel web content delivery platform available - way ahead of anything else available in the market," the Managing Director of bemoko said.