London pre-open: Small rise expected in early trading

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 13 points from yesterday's close of 5,719, following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday that US monetary policy was 'more or less in the right place', indicating further quantitative easing in the near-term is unlikely. AstraZeneca said profits fell by more than a third in the first quarter after a number of patents ran and it was hit by tough market conditions. Revenues came in well below market expectations, falling 11% to $7.349bn, short of consensus forecasts for revenue of $7,874m. Loss of exclusivity on several key brands accounted for eight percentage points of the revenue decline, the firm said.Integrated oil and gas titan Royal Dutch Shell's upstream activities drove a bigger than expected increase in the Anglo-Dutch group's first quarter earnings. Underlying earnings on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis rose to $7,279m from $6,288m in the corresponding quarter of 2011. Charles Stanley analyst Tony Shepard had pencilled in a figure for earnings after tax of $6.5bn.Adjusted profits at UK lender Barclays surged by over a fifth in the first quarter of 2012, well above expectations. Adjusted pre-tax jumped 22% from £2,004m registered in the first quarter of 2011 to £2,445m this year. Consensus estimates were for a reading of £2,006m. Adjusted results exclude the impact of £2,620m own credit reversal (2011: £351m), £300m in provisions for PPI redress (2011: nil) and any gains on acquisitions and disposals (2012: nil, 2011: £2m).