London pre-open: Stocks seen muted as Brexit talks deadline extended to Sunday

London stocks were set for a muted open on Thursday as the deadline for Brexit talks was extended to Sunday.

The FTSE 100 was called to open just six points higher at 6,570.

Rabobank said: "There is little to report on Brexit. Dinner last night between BoJo and von der Leyen was indeed fish and scallops. A load of scallops, in fact, because nothing was agreed. The latest deadline is perhaps this Sunday.

"However, there are also suggestions December 31 might be the day of days. GBP is down from nearly 1.3480 to under 1.34 this morning: presumably somebody thought the fish was a bit off. So is British travel to the EU from 1 January: its current virus status means no visits to Europe - which has no Covid at all - will be allowed."

Investors were also digesting the latest reading on the UK economy, which showed that GDP rose 0.4% on the month in October, in line with consensus expectations but down from the 2.2% and 1.1% month-on-month increases seen in August and September.

Capital Economics said: "The economy continued to grow in October, but at a snail’s pace. And with the Covid-19 restrictions likely to remain in place for some time, the economy is in for a difficult few months yet.

"But scope for a decent ‘vaccine bounce’ next year should allow the economy to regain its pre-pandemic level in early 2022. And we now think that by the middle of the decade the economy won’t be much smaller than if the crisis had never happened."

In corporate news, Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group raised full-year profit guidance as it reported higher profits at the half-year driven by strong sales online and at stores as they reopened after the Covid-19 lockdown.

The company said underlying core earnings would be 20% to 30% higher. Interim pre-tax profits rose 17.6% to £106.1m on a 7.4% fall in revenue to £1.9bn.