London pre-open: Stocks seen firmer after Friday's losses
London stocks were set for a firmer open on Monday, recovering from losses at the end of last week.
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 28 points higher at 7,460.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: “The pound has been gaining ground versus the US dollar since March and the UK CPI figures on Tuesday, and the unemployment and wages data on Wednesday could reignite interest in the currency pair. The weakness in the pound over the past year has contributed to the high inflation rate. The wages numbers might be the best way to gauge what the Bank of England (BoE) will do next. Low wage growth is likely to keep the BoE is dovish mode.”
There are no major UK data releases due on Monday.
In corporate news, housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has reported a slowing in its sales rate in the second half of the year but said it still expected full year results to hit their targets.
For the second half of 2017, the company has sold 0.71 sales per outlet per week, taking the year-to-date rate to 0.81 from 0.87 in the first half.
Rentokil Initial has acquired North America’s largest provider of mosquito control services, Vector Disease Acquisition, for an undisclosed consideration.
At the same time, the FTSE 100 company lifted its mergers and acquisitions pipeline guidance for the second half to $100m, saying prospects for further purchases remained “very strong”.
Vodafone announced that its India operation and Idea Cellular have separately agreed to sell their respective standalone tower businesses in India to ATC Telecom Infrastructure for an aggregate enterprise value of INR 78.5bn.
The transaction follows the Vodafone India and Idea merger announcement on 20 March.
Funeral services provider Dignity reported an increase in revenue and profit in the third quarter, even as the number of deaths was broadly flat.
In the 39 week period to 29 September, operating profit rose 5% to £79.4m on revenue of £243.9m, up from £229.3m, as the number of deaths ticked up just 1% to 440,000. The company said it continues to see significant competition across the business.