London pre-open: Stocks seen muted ahead of G20 meeting

London stocks were set for a muted start on Friday, with traders likely to be cautious ahead of the G20 meeting.

The FTSE 100 was called to open three points lower at 7,035 ahead of the G20 meeting in Argentina, where all eyes will be on US President Trump and China's Xi Jinping amid hopes that they can come to a truce on trade.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "With President Trump, the only thing you can expect is the unexpected. There has been a lot of back and forth in relation to how close they are to doing a deal. Yesterday, Mr Trump declared, they are close to an agreement, but he doesn’t ‘know if he wants to do it’. The strained trading relationship between the two economic power houses has been one of the issues hanging over global stock markets."

Meanwhile, on home shores, Brexit will remain in focus ahead of the House of Commons vote on the deal on 11 December.

"Unless there is a swing in sentiment to back Mrs May, sterling is likely to remain under pressure," said Madden.

Investors will also be mulling the latest survey from Nationwide, which showed annual house price growth ticked a touch higher this month.

House prices were up 0.3% on the month, beating expectations for a 0.1% increase and compared to no growth in September.

On the year, house prices were 1.9% higher, up from 1.6% growth the month before and beating expectations for 1.7% growth.

Nationwide's chief economist Robert Gardner said: "Looking forward, much will depend on how broader economic conditions evolve. In the near term, the squeeze on household budgets and the uncertain economic outlook is likely to continue to dampen demand, even though borrowing costs remain low and the unemployment rate is near 40-year lows.

"If the uncertainty lifts in the months ahead and employment continues to rise, there is scope for activity to pick-up through next year. The squeeze on household incomes is already moderating and policymakers have signalled that, if the economy performs as they expect, interest rates are only expected to rise at a modest pace and to a limited extent in the years ahead."

In corporate news, engineer Babcock said it had won a £100m 10-year contract for aerial firefighting by the government of Manitoba, Canada.

This is the first firefighting work the group has won outside of Europe and will start in April 2019. Babcock will manage, maintain and operate Manitoba's fleet of seven firefighting fixed-wing Canadair water-bomber amphibious aircraft, supported by three Babcock Twin Commander aircraft.

Shire's injectable treatment for hereditary angioedema has been cleared for launch in European, having enjoyed early success in the US.

The European Commission gave Takhzyro, a monoclonal antibody that inhibits formation of the enzyme kallikrein that triggers hereditary angioedema, marketing authorisation in prevention of recurrent attacks of the condition in patients aged 12 years and older.