London stock market looks to pre-budget report

The London stock exchange will focus on the British government's annual pre-budget report next week amid mounting speculation of a snap general election in November. The FTSE 100 index gained for the fourth consecutive week, gaining 0.73 percent on Friday to end at 6,595.80, an increase of 129 points and 1.99 percent compared to a week ago.
During the session, it passed the level of 6,600 points, for the first time since July 24. The market will also be looking at the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is expected to announce, probably on Monday, that it has succeeded with its consortium partners Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and Santander of Spain in winning a take-over battle for Dutch bank ABN Amro.
Barclay's dropped out of the race on Friday, saying that it had withdrawn its take-over offer for the Dutch lender. The RBS consortium's offer, worth about 71 billion euros (101 billion dollars), expired on Friday and a source close to the matter said RBS will reveal the level of ABN shareholder support early next week.
On Wednesday the supermarket Sainsbury's will present its second quarter results, and will possibly seize on the opportunity to comment on the offer from take-over suitor and Qatari investment fund Delta Two.
The Qatari group bid 10.6 billion pounds (15.7 billion euros, 21.7 billion dollars) in July for Britain's third-biggest supermarket operator.
Monday will see the publication of British industrial production and September production prices. But the main focus of the week will be the pre-budget presented on Tuesday by Finance Minister Alistair Darling. The timing of the pre-budget has raised speculation that there will be a snap general election as the budget is usually presented at the end of November at the earliest, and at a date announced well in advance.
New Prime Minister Gordon Brown has until Tuesday to ask Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve parliament if he wants elections to take place on November 1. If he takes a few days extra the vote will be November 8.
Brown may also decide not to call the elections after all as the lead the Labour Party enjoys over the Conservatives has diminished over the past few days.