London pre-open: Stocks to edge up ahead of EU summit
London stocks were set to edge up at the open on Friday as investors eyed an EU summit to discuss a coronavirus rescue fund.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 16 points higher at 6,266.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The EU summit will be in focus today as divisions over the $750 billion rescue fund will be on traders’ minds. Funds will be deployed to countries that have been hardest hit. The current proposal is that €500 will be handed out as grants, while the remaining €250 billion will be dispensed as loans.
"The ‘frugal four’, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Austria, oppose such a large percentage of the funds being allocated as grants without conditions. The likes of Spain and Italy would benefit from the current proposal, so the old north-south divide pops up again. There is no doubt the region needs a financial boost, but nothing is likely to be agreed upon soon."
Market participants will also be mulling the latest results from Netflix, whose shares fell overnight after second-quarter earnings per share missed expectations but revenue beat. In addition, the streaming giant’s subscriber growth guidance for the third quarter failed to impress.
In UK corporate news, Homeserve said it expected a solid performance in the current financial year as the home repair company indicated trading was picking up well after Covid-19 lockdowns.
Rio Tinto reported a 1.5% rise in second quarter iron ore shipments and added that demand from China was improving as the country’s economy recovers from the pandemic.
The world's largest iron ore miner shipped 86.7m tonnes of the commodity in the quarter to June 30, up from 85.4m tonnes a year earlier.
"Our iron ore assets are performing well in a strong pricing environment and we are on track to meet our 2020 iron ore guidance," Chief Executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques said.