London pre-open: Stocks to edge down ahead of jobs data

London stocks were set to edge lower at the open on Wednesday as investors eyed key jobs data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open nine points lower at 7,722.

Average earnings, the claimant count and the ILO unemployment rate are all due at 0930 GMT.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Unemployment is expected to remain steady at 42 year lows of 4.3%, however it is on the wages numbers that are likely to be analysed particularly closely.

"Having seen headline inflation for December give conflicting signals last week, with CPI slipping back to 3%, but RPI pushing further away from 4% it is more important than ever that wages growth starts to show further signs of edging higher in the three months to November, and more importantly towards the end of Q4.

"The omens ought to be positive given the recent significant increases in the minimum wage which should start to show up in the numbers, and help the numbers push back up towards the 3% level.

"London wages have risen in excess of 4.5%, in the past few months, while elsewhere in the country we’ve seen rises of up to 3.6%, for up to 150k workers, and this really ought to start pulling the headline rate higher, given the skills shortages being reported in both the manufacturing and services sectors, which according to the CBI are at multi decade highs.

"Predictions are for weekly earnings excluding bonuses to rise by 2.3%, and 2.5% with bonuses for November, unchanged from October."

In corporate news, Sage, the accounting software developer, increased sales slightly below target in the first three months of its financial year as it invested "heavily" in sales training to allow sales to accelerate in coming months.

Organic revenue grew 6.3% in the three months ended 31 December, but the FTSE 100-listed group remained confident of hitting its 8% full year target.

Mexico-based precious metals mining company Fresnillo reported record annual silver production in its fourth quarter production update on Wednesday, totalling 58.7 moz including Silverstream.

The FTSE 100 firm said that was an increase of 16.6% over 2016, in line with guidance and primarily as a result of the first complete year of San Julián phase I operating at full capacity, and the start-up of operations at San Julián phase II.

Chile focused miner Antofagasta said full year copper production fell 0.7% to 704,300 tonnes, in line with guidance.

The fall was due to the impact of expected lower grades at Los Pelambres and Centinela, which was offset by Encuentro Oxides coming into production in October and following the completion of the ramp-up at Antucoya in 2016.