London pre-open: Stocks seen higher as investors shrug off US CPI

London stocks looked set for a positive open on Thursday, taking their cue from the US, where investors shrugged off a rise in inflation.

The FTSE 10 was called to open 34 points higher at 7,248.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "While yesterday’s inflation numbers make a Fed rate rise in March more or less a done deal the prospect of additional rate rises later on in the year don’t appear to be causing the same consternation in equity markets that they were a week ago, as US markets closed higher for the fourth day in succession, despite initially opening lower in the wake of the release of the data."

The year-on-year headline consumer price index for January showed a 2.1% gain, unchanged from December and missing economists' expectations for a fall to 1.9%.

There are no major UK data releases, but in the US, NY Empire State manufacturing and jobless claims are at 1330 GMT, along with the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index.

In corporate news, Standard Life Aberdeen said it was making an impairment charge of around £40m after Lloyds Bank announced it was withdrawing funds controlled by its Scottish Widows investment arm.

Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert, Standard Life Aberdeen's chief executives said: "We are disappointed by this decision in the context of the strong performance and good service we have delivered for LBG, Scottish Widows and their customers.”

“We will be discussing the implications of this with LBG and Scottish Widows."

RELX Group, the information and analytics formerly known as Reed Elsevier, lifted its final dividend 10%, pledged to repeat its £700m share buyback in 2018 and proposed a to merge its UK and Dutch parent companies in a further simplification of its corporate structure.

The group will remain in the FTSE 100 and will apply for its Plc shares to be listed on Euronext Amsterdam after the merger, which will see no changes to its current headquarters, office locations, staffing levels or dividends in what is a cost- and profit-neutral merger.

AstraZeneca, along with Merck & Co, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for selumetinib, a MEK 1/2 inhibitor, for the treatment of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).

The drugmaker described NF1 as an incurable genetic condition, which affects one in 3,000 births with highly-variable symptoms, including cutaneous, neurological and orthopaedic manifestations.