London pre-open: Promising start is forecast

Equities are set to extend Friday's near-1% rally following huge gains on Wall Street and triple-digit advances in the Far East.In company news, Wolseley, the supplier of goods to the plumbing and heating trade, is to resume paying dividends at the interim stage next year after finishing the old year with a flourish. Although revenue for the year to 31 July fell 9%, or 10% in constant currency terms, to £13.2bn, this was above the market consensus of £13.1bn, while the fourth quarter saw an encouraging 4% gain in like for like sales.Chairman John Whybrow has also announced he will be replaced by Gareth Davies, currently the board's senior non-executive director and former chief executive of Imperial Tobacco.Unilever is paying $3.7bn (£2.3bn) in cash for America's Alberto Culver, adding the TRESemmé, Nexxus, VO5, St Ives and Simple brands to the household goods conglomerate's portfolio. It should also deliver "significant" synergies and, excluding restructuring costs, will be accretive to earnings per share (EPS) in the first full year, said the owner of Dove, Clear, Sunsilk, Pond's and Vaseline.AstraZeneca's prostate cancer treatment zibotentan showed little patient benefit in the first of three late stage trials, the drugs giant has revealed. A phase III study evaluating zibotentan in men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer did not show a significant improvement in the primary endpoint of overall survival, Astra said. Private equity group 3i is to buy debt management business Mizuho Investment Management (UK). 3i has entered into an agreement with Mizuho Corporate Bank (MHCB) to purchase 100% of the shares in business Mizuho Investment Management (MIM) for an enterprise value of £18.3m.