London pre-open: Stocks seen muted as Brexit remains in focus
London stocks were set for a muted open on Monday as all eyes remained firmly fixed on Brexit developments.
The FTSE 100 was called to open four points higher at 7,017.
Theresa is due to sell her Brexit plan to business later in the day when she appears at the Confederation of British Industry's annual conference. May is expected to insist that the withdrawal agreement cannot be changed and that the next steps will be to work on future trading relationship.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said; "A satisfactory Brexit solution would appear further away than ever, and despite speculation that Graham Brady, head of the Conservative Party 1922 committee might well get the required 48 letters for a leadership challenge, we still seem no nearer to knowing whether the numbers are there than we did on Friday, which rather begs the question if they can’t get the numbers now, will they ever be able to do so.
"It also raises another point in that even if they were to get the numbers, would they be able to get enough votes to force her out. If Sir Graham Brady is to be believed in comments made at the weekend, he suggested that the Prime Minister would win any confidence vote, which may help explain why a number of Brexit supporting cabinet ministers, including Michael Gove decided to stay."
Investors will also be digesting the latest survey from Rightmove, which showed house prices fell by 1.7% on the month in November versus a 1% increase in October. On the year, house prices were down 0.2% in November compared to a 0.9% the month before.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst, said: "New sellers and their agents are reacting to market forces and lowering their pricing aspirations by more and sooner than usual. Stretched buyer affordability and the cooling markets in the south and in upper price brackets have combined with the ongoing political uncertainty to change pricing optimism into pricing realism.
"This is a welcome effort by sellers to minimise the usual pre-Christmas market slowdown. Some new-to-the-market sellers and their agents have acted early to try to improve the buying mood and avoid the traditional 'buyer humbug' dislike of Christmas housing activity."
In corporate news, Babcock International played down a weekend report about a large write-down that the defence contractor will have to take to its accounts this week.
After Sky News reported that a near-£100m hit will be taken on the value of its helicopter business, the FTSE 250 group emphasised that it does "not expect the net cash costs to be material".
Miner BHP Billiton said it had agreed with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to settle the transfer pricing dispute regarding its marketing operations in Singapore.
The company said it would pay AUD $529m (£301m) in additional taxes on income for 2003 to 2018.
The dispute was regarding the amount of Australian tax payable from sale of BHP’s Australian commodities to BHP’s Singapore marketing business.
Public infrastructure project and business investor International Public Partnerships updated the market on its portfolio performance for the period from 1 July to 16 November, reporting that its collection of 130 investments in public and social infrastructure assets and related businesses was operating and performing in line with expectations.
The company said it had continued to see a “solid and consistent” level of operational performance in the portfolio, which was driving “strong and sustainable” ongoing financial performance for shareholders with continued dividend growth.