London pre-open: Stocks seen higher after Wall St records; GDP in focus

London stocks were set for a firmer open on Friday after an upbeat session on Wall Street, where the Dow and S&P 500 notched record closes, as investors eyed the release of fourth-quarter GDP figures for the UK and US.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 22 points higher at 7,637.

Preliminary fourth-quarter GDP figures are due for the UK at 0930 GMT, while the same data for the US is due at 1330 GMT.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “It's an important day for initial iterations of Q4 GDP for the UK and US economies. Starting with the UK we’ll get to see an initial snapshot of how strongly the UK economy finished off 2017.

“Initial indications are expected to show that the UK economy grew 0.4% in Q4 with services expected to contribute most of the expansion, though manufacturing is also expected to put in a decent performance.

“In the US we will also be getting the first iteration of Q4 GDP with only a modest slow down expected from the strong numbers seen in Q3. A slight moderation from an annualised 3.2% to 3% is predicted.”

Investors will also be looking ahead to a speech by US president Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Forex markets are also likely to remain in focus after comments from Trump at Davos breathed some life back into the dollar late on Thursday. The US President said in an interview that he expects the greenback to get “stronger and stronger”, adding: "Our country is becoming so economically strong again and strong in other ways, too."

These comments helped to reverse the slide sparked by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s comments on Wednesday, when he said at Davos that a weaker dollar is good for trade.

Corporate news was thin on the ground.

Spectris said it had bought Concept Life Sciences from Equistone Partners Europe and company management for £163m, on a debt and cash-free basis and met from existing cash and bank facilities.

AstraZeneca found a statistically significant improvement in eight out of nine lung patients as it tested its 'PT010' combination drug delivered with a pressurised metered-dose inhaler in late-stage clinical trials.

Inhalation of PT010, which is a combination of budesonide, glycopyrronium and formoterol fumarate, was being tested on patients with moderate to very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a 24-week, chronic-dosing, multi-centre trial to assess the efficacy and safety of the treatment.

HICL Infrastructure Company updated the market on its operations on Friday following the liquidation of Carillion earlier in the month, reporting that its priority is the continuation of services to public sector clients and the users of the facilities at the affected PPP projects.

The FTSE 250 company said service delivery in the period since Carillion's liquidation had been “stable”, with no material issues, as a result of the work of staff, suppliers, public sector clients and project company management teams.