London pre-open: Shares to slide despite softer pound

London shares are expected to fall on Thursday, mirroring a slip in Wall Street overnight that traders expect to override another dip in the pound.

The FTSE 100 index is seen dropping around 23 points on the open, having finished at 7,511.49 the previous session. The pound was down 0.30% versus the dollar at 1.3128.

Overnight, Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell made upbeat remarks following the central bank's 25 basis point hike of interest rates.

The Fed stopped describing its policy stance as "accommodative" but Powell explained that that wasn't meant as a signal.

This sent US stocks lower and lifted the dollar, apart from against safe haven currencies the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc.

"A 100 point sell off in the Dow and a sharp move lower in US 10-year yields, is not the expected reaction when the Fed is upbeat about the economy and shows not that much has changed from the strong projections in June," said London Capital Group market analyst Jasper Lawler.

"The Fed teed the market up for another rise in December and three more across the coming year. No changes there. However, Powell was quick to point out that rates could be hiked faster if needed or cut if the economy slows. The market had been expecting an unequivocal hawkish hike and these comments from Powell meant this was not the case, causing some disappointment for the bulls."

In London corporate news, TUI Group said the 2018 holiday season was closing as expected with customer numbers increasing despite the heatwave in Northern Europe. Early trading for future seasons is in line with expectations, the tour operator said in a trading update.

Rupert Murdoch and Disney said overnight that they had would either accept Comcast's offer for Sky at a price of £17.28 per share or directly sell its 39.12% stake. Comcast had 37.7% of Sky shares at Wednesday's close and said it "does not currently intend to make any further market purchases of Sky shares".

Safety, health and environmental technology group Halma said all its sectors delivered as-expected organic constant currency revenue and profit growth in the six months from April 1. Order intake was ahead of revenue and also ahead of the same period last year, the company said in a trading update.

DCC has proposed raising up to £650m in an institutional share placing, after it completed the $170m (£130m) acquisition of North American musical instruments and electronics specialist Jam Group and said first-half operating profit will be "well ahead" of the prior year, driven by previous acquisitions. The Irish sales, marketing and support services group said growth in its retail and oil, healthcare and technology businesses was all strong in the six months ending 30 September, with the liquid petroleum gas business in line with expectations.

There is likely to be more price action for drug developer Indivior as it issued a profit warnings just before the closing bell on Wednesday. Reinstating full year guidance after it had been withdrawn in the summer due to uncertainty about court challenges from rivals, the company said it expected net income to come in at $230-255m at constant exchange rates and excluding exceptional items, down from the $290-320m guidance given at the start of the year.

Saga reported revenue down 1.7% and underlying pre-tax profit down 3.7% due to planned investments and increased in new business acquisition costs, but kept its dividend unchanged.