London pre-open: Soft opening expected

The top share index could well slide below 5,900 at the outset this morning with City traders expecting the Footsie to dip by around 27 points from Friday's close of 5,926.Oilfield services group Wood Group is to return £1.05bn to shareholders by way of a tender offer to repurchase up to 32.1% of the issued ordinary share capital of the group. The strike price range has been set at 605p to 625p.The strike price range represents a discount of 6.1% to 3.0% to the closing price of Wood shares on 13 May, the last trading day before the announcement of the tender offer.London Stock Exchange says it remains committed to its proposed merger with its Canadian counterpart TMX despite learning that TMX has received an approach from Maple, a consortium of Canadian financial institutions and pension funds.Pork sausages maker Cranswick enjoyed a record year of sales and profitability, despite sales growth petering out in the first quarter of 2011. Pre-tax profit rose 8% to £47.1m from £43.8m the year before.---jh