London pre-open: Stocks to edge higher ahead of retail sales data

London stocks were set to edge higher at the open on Thursday as investors eyed the latest retail sales data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open up seven points at 7,324, with retail sales data for March due out at 0930 BST.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "For the most part of this year it’s been difficult to escape the steady drip, drip, drip of bad news from UK retail with profit warnings from across the retail sector at a seven-year high.

"High profile names including Toys ‘R Us, Debenhams, Maplin, Mothercare, Moss Bros, Carpetright, Kingfisher, New Look, either going into administration or reporting difficulties, the list goes on with even high street mainstay John Lewis warning about falling sales, amidst reports of job losses in the thousands, across the entire sector in the first three months of this year alone.

"Against this sort of backdrop, you would tend to expect to see consumer spending patterns take a little bit of a hit, and while it is no secret that consumers in the UK are more price sensitive, they’ve shown little sign of reining back spending significantly so far this year. Today’s retail sales numbers for March could of course shatter this perception of consumers feeling a little better about their spending habits."

Retail sales are expected to have dropped 0.5% on a monthly basis and risen 2% on the year.

In corporate news, broadcaster Sky, which is currently the subject of a bidding war, posted a 5% jump in nine-month like-for-like revenues on Thursday as core earnings rose 14%, and said it remains on track for the full year.

In the nine months to 31 March 2018, LFL revenue grew to £10.1bn, while established business earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at £1.8bn. Meanwhile, customer numbers in the third quarter were up by 38,000 to 22.9m.

Unilever sales growth slowed in the first quarter from the end of last year, though the consumer goods colossus remained confident of hitting its full-year target for underlying sales growth of 3-5%.

Directors, who have been in the firing line in the UK over their decision to move the Anglo-Dutch group's corporate headquarters to Rotterdam, said they would raise the quarterly dividend 8% "reflecting confidence in our outlook".

Rentokil International’s revenue has growth slowed in 2018 because of the impact of the hurricane in Puerto Rico and cold weather in the US that delayed the emergence of spring pests.

Organic revenue growth, excluding acquisitions and disposals, was 3.2% in the first quarter compared with 3.7% a year earlier. In the final quarter of 2017 growth was 3.1%.

AstraZeneca announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Tagrisso (osimertinib) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, whose tumours have epidermal growth factor receptor mutations as detected by an FDA-approved test.

The company said the approval was based on results from the Phase III FLAURA trial, which were presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology 2017 Congress and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.