London pre-open: Stocks seen touch lower as investors eye GDP
London stocks were set to open a little lower on Friday as investors look to the release of UK GDP figures on what is expected to be a very quiet half day’s trading ahead of the Christmas break.
The FTSE 100 was expected to start nine points lower at 7,054.
The final release of third-quarter GDP is at 0930 GMT. In the US, new home sales and University of Michigan sentiment are at 1500 GMT.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said: “The UK GDP is expected to have expanded by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, while the current account deficit may have narrowed from 28.7 to 28.2 billion pound in 3Q. Surprise softness in UK’s economic data could further weigh on GBP-crosses. The key support is eyed at 1.2080 against the US dollar, before the 1.2000 handle. Cable is expected to finish the year by 1.2300/1.2250.”
Aside from the GDP figures, banks could be in focus after the Italian cabinet gave the green light to rescue Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena as it failed to raise €5bn from private investors.
In UK corporate news, the US Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Barclays and two of its former executives on civil charges of fraud in the sale of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis.
Barclays said on Friday that it rejects the claims made in the complaint and considers that they are “are disconnected from the facts”.
“Barclays will vigorously defend the complaint and intends to seek its dismissal at the earliest opportunity,” the bank said.
AstraZeneca announced on Friday that it has completed the agreement with Pfizer for the sale of the commercialisation and development rights to its late-stage small molecule antibiotics business, comprising the approved antibiotics Merrem, Zinforo and Zavicefta, and ATM-AVI and CXL, which are in clinical development.
The FTSE 100 company said under the agreement, AstraZeneca has received a payment of $550m for the commercialisation and development rights to the late-stage antibiotics business in all markets where AstraZeneca holds the rights.
Inhaled airways disease device and formulation business Vectura Group has signed a development and licence agreement with Mundipharma International Corporation and a US independent associated company, as the global development and commercialisation partner for the VR2076 pressurised metered dose inhaler.
The company said that in December 2015, the companies entered into a feasibility and option agreement and following successful completion of the feasibility work, the two companies had now confirmed they will exercise the option to develop and commercialise VR2076 initially in asthma.It said the exercise of the option triggers a payment to Vectura of €1.5m.