London pre-open: Stocks to edge up as voters head to the polls
London stocks were expected to edge up at the open on Thursday as Britons head to the polls to cast their vote in the general election.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 10 points higher at 7,226.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “Voting begins this morning in the UK general election with the pound continuing to hold up well, and with campaigning now over the next move in sterling is likely to come with the release of the first exit poll just after 2200GMT, when markets will get the first indication of their preferable outcome, which already appears to be partly priced in, or other more unwelcome scenarios.
“While the polls have consistently given the Conservatives a decent lead over the past few weeks, some of the gaffes this week from both sides could well have shifted the voting calculus, particularly when voting intentions as far as party lines are concerned have never been less clear.
“The toxicity of the respective candidates towards certain parts of the electorate has meant that for a lot of voters there will be a lot of nose holding going on today, when they ponder their choices in the privacy of the polling booth.”
Investors will also be mulling the latest policy announcement from the Federal Reserve, which said overnight that it had voted unanimously to keep interest rates unchanged, as widely expected.
“As suspected last Friday’s bumper payrolls report appears to have reinforced US policymaker’s confidence in the labour market as well as the US economy. Rather perversely the changes in the statement actually caused the US dollar to fall, despite the prospect of no changes next year,” said Hewson.
Later in the day, attention will turn to the European Central Bank’s latest policy announcement.
In UK corporate news, construction group Balfour Beatty said it expected full year profit from operations to be slightly ahead of expectations after additional infrastructure Investment disposals in the second half.
The company said profits would be “broadly” in line with 2018's £205m with revenue forecast to be around 5% higher than the prior year figure of £7.8bn.
AstraZeneca announced that it has received marketing authorisation from China's National Medical Products Administration for ‘Imfinzi’, or durvalumab, for the treatment of patients with unresectable, stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer, whose disease had not progressed following concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the approval of Imfinzi was based on results from the primary analysis of progression-free survival, and supported by overall survival, from the phase 3 ‘PACIFIC’ trial.
It said a post-hoc analysis of three-year overall survival results had since shown that consistent efficacy was maintained for treatment with Imfinzi after additional follow up.