London pre-open: Stocks set for modest gain after Fed offers no surprises

London-listed stocks are set for a modest gain on Thursday morning, after the Federal Reserve surprised no one with its decision to terminate its third round of quantitative easing.

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around 12 points above Wednesday's close of 6,453.87.

The Fed also opted to keep its interest rates unchanged, vowing to maintain them near zero a "considerable time".

"With the quantitative easing programme now behind them, the Federal Reserve may be fully focused on that first rate hike and coming across a little more hawkish in its language, but that doesn't appear to be concerning investors as much as you may expect," observed Alpari market analyst Craig Erlam.

"The Fed got away pretty much scot free last night despite adding clear hawkish elements to its statement. References to the substantial improvement in the labour market and the broader economy, along with the hawkish tone on inflation, did not go unnoticed by the markets and [...] US indices did reverse gains to end lower, while US Treasury yields rose, the dollar appreciated and Gold fell."

On Thursday's agenda will be German inflation figures, as well as US growth and jobless claims data.

In company news, Barclays unveiled a third quarter adjusted pre-tax profit well ahead of forecast as it held costs to a five-year quarterly low. The bank generated a profit for the third quarter of £1.59bn, up 14% on the £1.39bn from the same period last year and well ahead of the £1.1bn consensus prediction

Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has announced that its chairman of eight years Jorma Ollila is to step down next year, as the company reported a big jump in third-quarter earnings. Ollila, the former boss of mobile-phone group Nokia, will be replaced by current non-executive director Charles Holliday, who has worked for Shell since 2010.

Telecoms titan BT Group reported a decent jump in second-quarter profits as costs fell despite a slip in sales, with results "slightly ahead of market expectations". Adjusted pre-tax profit was up 13% over the previous year at £690m in the six months to 30 September.