London pre-open: StanChart beats third quarter forecasts

(ShareCast News) - Shares were expected to rise at the start of the session, taking their cue from overnight gains on Wall Street that saw the Dow Jones Industrials move back into positive territory for the year and the S&P clamber back atop its mid-August highs.The Footsie was seen starting the day up to 33 points higher from Monday´s closing mark of 6,361.8, while the Shanghai Stock Exchange´s Composite Index was edging lower by 0.25% to reach 3,316.7.Tuesday was expected to be rather lacklustre in terms of economic newsflow, albeit ahead of Friday´s 'all-important' October US non-farm payrolls numbers.In the UK all eyes would focus on the latest construction purchasing managers´ index for that same month.It would follow several months of improvement in the PMI amid a broad skills shortage withing the sector that some observers feared might impact negatively on productivity.On the other side of the channel, investors were waiting on the frehs data on Eurozone services sector activity.Overnight the Reserve Bank of Australia left its main policy rates unchanged at 2%, in line with expectations, but left the door open to further easing."With inflation currently at the lower end of the RBAs target range and policy makers suggesting that the outlook could allow for further easing to support demand, I do see potential for another cut early next year," said Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at Oanda.StanChart sees sharp drop in third quarter profitsStandard Chartered has posted a disappointing third quarter book due to challenging market conditions combined with business divestments and de-risking initiatives. It saw an $832m dip in income for the period, down to $3.68bn, due to a decline in client activity as a result of volatile market conditions and the impact of de-risking actions. That led the company to reports a loss of $139m for the quarter, down from $1.53bn in the previous year. In the year to date, profit is down from $4.8bn last year to $1.68bn.Direct Line posted a 3.1% increase in total written gross premiums for the three months to 30 September, led by a 6.8% in Motor. That came alongside a 7% drop in total costs for ongoing operations, while investment income yield rose to 2.4%. The insurer reiterated its expectation for a full year 2015 combined operating ratio of between 92% to 94% after normalising for major weather events.Imperial Tobacco posted a rise in underlying tobacco net revenue for the year ended 30 September and said it was well placed to meet expectations for the coming year. The company reported a 3.1% increase in tobacco net revenue to £6.25bn. Chief executive Alison Cooper said: "We generated excellent results from our Growth Brands, outperforming the market with volume and share growth. Our footprint was significantly enhanced by the US acquisition and the acquired brands performed well in the final quarter, maintaining share."