London pre-open: Little change expected on FTSE at opening bell
UK stocks are expected to open little changed, despite a decent session in Asia overnight.
City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open just two points below Friday's close of 6,819.75.
The Hang Seng, Jikkei and Shanghai Composite all performed well overnight, following a strong finish in the US on Friday, which saw the Dow Jones close up 0.11% at 17,098, the Nasdaq end 0.49% higher at 4,580 and the S&P 500 rise 0.31% to 2,621.
This week will see investors focus their attention on events in the Eurozone, with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi widely expected to make a commitment to a big stimulus programme in an effort to prevent deflation in the single currency region.
Expectations of such a step were raised after he said the Bank "stand[s] ready to adjust our policy stance further" in a speech made to a symposium of central bankers at Jackson Hole two weeks ago.
The measures are expected to fall short of quantitative easing, but rather would mark a move towards such a programme. It was being reported that the President may confirm plans to purchase as much as €200bn-worth of asset-backed securities.
In this morning's company news, UK banking group Barclays is to offload part of its Spanish business to Caixabank as part of its non-core asset disposal programme. The retail banking, wealth and investment management, and corporate banking businesses in Spain will be sold for €800m (around £630m) in cash. They represent total assets of €22.2bn, as of 30 June.
British Land announced that Regent's Place, its 13-acre mixed-use campus in the West End, is fully let after The Guinness Partnership agreed terms for the final remaining accommodation at 30 Brock Street. The letting means the completed campus of 1.5m square foot is now fully-occupied, which it said was "a significant milestone in British Land's 30 year journey at Regent's Place".
Housebuilder Berkeley Group said that it has been able to maintain the level of forward sales during the first quarter despite a normalisation of the housing market over recent months. Berkeley said on Monday that the market has "reverted to normal transaction levels from the high point in 2013". Nevertheless, it said that this provides a "stable operating environment".
NR