London pre-open: Stocks seen lower ahead of payrolls

London stocks were set to open lower on Friday, with Democrat Joe Biden just ahead of Republican Trump in the US election, as investors eyed the latest US non-farm payrolls report.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 26 points lower at 5,880.

Ava Trade analyst Naeem Aslam said: "Joe Biden is chipping away Trump's early lead in the most crucial swing states, and he has strengthened his hold to become the president of the United States of America. Joe Biden potentially needs just one more seat to push Donald Trump from his seat. On the other hand, President Trump has initiated court battles, and he is hoping to win the election.

"Traders are anxious about the current situation, and no one knows how long this process will take, but one thing is for certain, it can easily expand into weeks, especially if court battles take a wrong turn. The whole process is full of uncertainty, but overall traders and investors are still pricing Biden's victory."

On home shores, concerns over Brexit were likely to resurface after the National Audit Office said UK trade with the EU will face "significant disruption" when the Brexit transition period ends. The watchdog said it was "very unlikely" traders would be ready for checks the EU is due to impose at its borders and cautioned there wasn’t much time for UK ports to test new IT systems.

Investors will also be eyeing the release of the US non-farm payrolls report, unemployment rate and average earnings, all due at 1330 GMT.

In corporate news, RSA is in talks to sell itself for £7.2bn to a consortium comprising Canada's Intact Financial Corp and Tryg A/S of Denmark.

The consortium has proposed paying 685p a share in cash for the FTSE 100 insurer. RSA would pay its proposed interim dividend of 8p a share.

Global insurer Beazley said gross written premiums rose 16% in the year to date driven by rate increases across all its divisions.

The company said premiums for the nine months to September 30 came in at $2.5bn, compared with £2.19bn a year earlier.

“Our initial estimate of the costs of the third quarter catastrophe events including hurricanes Laura and Sally and the wildfires in California is approximately $80m net of reinsurance and reinstatement premiums,” Beazley said.