London pre-open: Stocks seen down after May's defeat, ahead of retail sales

London stocks looked set to edge lower at the open on Friday as investors mulled the Commons' rejection of Theresa May's latest Brexit deal and eyed the latest release of UK retail sales data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open down eight points at 7,189.

London Capital Group analyst Jasper Lawler said: "Theresa May will tell the EU that she is no longer interested in reopening negotiations into the Irish backstop arrangement, in the latest twist.

"Given that her defeat on Thursday significantly raises the chances of a no deal Brexit, the pound is still looking relatively relaxed at these levels. As the clock continues to tick we can expect pound traders to start losing their nerve unless there are tangible signs of an extension to Article 50. Although we wouldn’t expect that until March."

The retail sales figures are out at 0930 GMT. Pantheon Macroeconomics said it expects the run of downbeat news on the UK economy to be punctuated today by January’s retail sales figures.

"Our forecast for a 1.0% month-to-month rise in sales volumes, following December’s 0.9% drop, is well above the consensus, 0.2%," it said.

In corporate news, Royal Bank of Scotland doubled profits last year and celebrated by declaring a special payout on top of an ordinary dividend.

RBS reported an operating profit before tax of £3.4bn and an attributable profit of £1.62bn for 2018, more than double the £752m from the year before and higher than £1.58bn that analysts expected.

Paper and packaging giant Mondi said it expected full year underlying EBITDA to be higher than 2017's €1.482bn.

In a trading update, Mondi said it expected basic underlying EPS to rise between 25% - 29% to 186 – 192 cents.

announced a "strong" set of results for the year ended 31 December, with adjusted pre-tax profit rising 24.4% to £241.5m.

The company said that reflected its development success, and its focus on customer and portfolio management, which it said delivered “high” customer retention rates, like-for-like rental growth and a low vacancy rate. Adjusted earnings per share were 23.4p, including a 1.2p net impact from a performance fee from SELP.