London pre-open: Kingfisher to sparkle

Yesterday's afternoon's surge is set to continue this morning, with City traders predicting the the FTSE 100 will open around 70 points up from yesterday's close of 5,227Kingfisher saw its underlying profit before tax in the 26 weeks to 30 July rise 24% from a year earlier to £439m, on the back of a 3.8% rise in sales. That comfortably beat Panmure Gordon's forecast of £409m.Ian Cheshire, Chief Executive of the DIY retailer said he was confident the group would continue to outperform, despite challenging conditions for retailers. The interim dividend has been bumped up 28.3% to 2.47p from 1.925p last year.While Kingfisher produced sparkling results, electrical goods retailer Kesa's report was more downbeat. The company saw like-for-like (LFL) revenues tumble 9.9% from a year earlier between May and July. Its Comet brand saw LFL sales fall 22.1%, while in France, Darty's sales were down 3.7% on a LFL basis. "The start of the year has been tough against the strong World Cup comparatives of last year and weakening market conditions," admitted Chief Executive Thierry Falque-Pierrotin.UK defence firm Cobham is to acquire US company Trivec-Avant, a satellite communication antennas specialist, for $126m in cash. The move will beef up Cobham's Antenna Systems strategic business unit. --jh