London pre-open: Stocks to nudge up; retailers in focus on Black Friday

London stocks looked set to nudge up a little at the open, with traders likely to be distracted as they hunt for some Black Friday bargains.

The FTSE 100 was expected to open five points higher at 7,422.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "In the absence of US markets yesterday for Thanksgiving, markets in Europe had a fairly low key session. With most US investors likely to take an extended weekend when US markets reopen later it could well be more of the same today in what has been a rather up and down week for markets in Europe.

"Despite a continued improvement in economic data with manufacturing and services PMI’s in both France and Germany showing solid improvements, reaching multi year highs in the process, stock market gains have been difficult to sustain despite two successive weeks of losses."

On the data front, BBA mortgage approvals are at 0930 GMT.

Meanwhile, retailers will be in focus as Black Friday gets into full swing. After an relatively upbeat CBI survey, retailers will be hoping to continue the momentum with promotions to inspire consumers to splash out. Calculations by IMRG showed UK consumers spent around £6.5bn during the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday week in 2016.

According to Howard Archer, chief economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club, research suggests that online sales are likely to benefit more than the high street.

Consumer anticipation surrounding Black Friday may have delayed a proportion of spending in October, said new consultancy Retail Economics, though its own recent research suggests "consumers appear to be less enthusiastic about the event and are expecting to spend less than last year".

In corporate news, Rio Tinto and China's Sinosteel Corporation have agreed to extend their Channar Mining joint venture. The third extension of the joint venture, confirmed in Beijing by Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques and Sinosteel chairman Xu Siwei, would see an additional 10 million tonnes of iron ore delivered into the venture from Western Australia.

Listed residential landlord Grainger has acquired a stabilised portfolio of three blocks in Manchester, comprising 192 private rented sector homes, for £26m. The FTSE 250 company said the portfolio has been acquired from Cabot Square Capital, and it expects the investment to generate a gross yield on cost of approaching 7%.

Manjit Wolstenholme, the executive chairman of Provident Financial and former investment banking chief at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, has died. Wolstenholme, aged 52, took on the additional temporary executive role at the embattled doorstep lender after Peter Crook resigned as chief executive in August. Malcolm Le May, senior independent director, has been appointed interim executive chairman with immediate effect.

Wolstenholme was also chair of housebuilder Cala Homes, senior independent director at student housing group Unite Group, and senior independent director at publisher Future, but recently gave up her role as senior independent director at CMC Markets in July “for personal reasons”.