London pre-open: Stocks to edge up as investors mull GDP data

London stocks were set to edge up at the open on Friday as investors mull the latest UK GDP data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 17 points higher at 7,116.

Figures out earlier from the Office for National Statistics showed the economy bounced back strongly in January after taking a hit from the Omicron variant. GDP grew 0.8% after contracting by 0.2% in December, coming in ahead of expectations of 0.1% growth.

Darren Morgan, ONS director of economic statistics, said: "All sectors grew in January with some industries that were hit particularly hard in December now performing well, including wholesaling, retailing, restaurants and takeaways. Computer programming and film and television production also had a good start to the year.

"While supply chain issues persisted in certain sectors, output in both construction and manufacturing grew for the third month running."

In corporate news, cybersecurity firm Avast said it had withdrawn all its products from Russia and Belarus and suspended all marketing and sales operations in those countries with immediate effect.

The company said it had staff in both Russia and Ukraine and was "actively working to protect and sustain them as a priority".

Ukraine customers have been offered a free extension on their licenses, while users of Avast "freemium" products are also able to get premium products for free.

"With disinformation rife, supporting Ukrainians' access to a secure, unrestricted internet connection to obtain and share accurate information about the conflict is critically important," the company said.

Berkeley Group said it was on track to meet full-year earnings guidance after continuing to trade "robustly" since 1 November.

Forward sales, representing cash due under exchanged private sales, were expected to be above £1.70bn at year end, flat year-on-year, whilst net cash was forecast to be around £900.0m, up from £846.0m, subject to the timing of certain land payments.

Berkeley said the value of underlying sales reservations remained slightly ahead of pre-pandemic levels, while cancellations were at normal rates and sales pricing was "sufficiently ahead" of its business plan to absorb construction cost increases.