London pre-open: Stocks seen higher on US tax hopes

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Sharecast News | 18 Dec, 2017

Updated : 07:37

London stocks were set for a firmer open on Monday, buoyed by a positive session in the US.

The FTSE 100 was expected to open nine points higher at 7,499.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: “US equity markets finished on a positive note last week as the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 all set fresh-record high as optimism is running high the US will pass the tax reform proposals. It is possible that US law makers will vote on the tax reform this week.

“Some last minute tweaks to be bill last week won over a few Senators, and now there is a greater chance the US will cut the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. Whether the cuts will actually encourage American businesses to relocate back to the US remains to be seen, but it makes the prospect of companies moving their headquarters overseas less likely.”

On the data front, the CBI industrial trends survey is at 1100 GMT.

In corporate news, IG has called new leverage limits being proposed by the European financial regulator "disproportionate" and said the broader set of proposals would have an impact of between 5% and 10% on historic revenues.

The European Securities and Markets Authority said it is considering measures to prohibit the marketing, distribution or sale to retail clients of binary options, together with restricting the marketing, distribution or sale to retail clients of CFDs, including rolling spot forex.

Babcock subsidiary Cavendish Nuclear, the UK's largest nuclear services business, has been awarded a 10-year contract to supply Sellafield with specialist handling and containment systems to process nuclear material. The FTSE 100 company said under the contract, worth up to £95m over the first three years, would see Cavendish Nuclear meeting all of Sellafield's requirements for the design, manufacture and supply of complex, bespoke equipment for the treatment and management of nuclear materials.

AstraZeneca announced on Monday that the US Food and Drug Administration has accepted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for the use of Tagrisso (osimertinib) in the first line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumours have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations.

The FTSE 100 drugmaker described Tagrisso as a third-generation, irreversible EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor with clinical activity against central nervous system metastases.

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