London pre-open: Stocks to rise ahead of manufacturing PMI
London stocks were set to kick the new year off on a positive note on Monday despite concerns about a potential new national lockdown, as investors eyed the latest reading on the UK manufacturing sector.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 38 points higher at 6,498.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The health crisis is still very much in focus. Covid-19 case numbers have risen in the UK and case number in other European nations are at worrying levels too.
"There is talk that England is in for even tougher restrictions and there are fears that other countries, such as Germany, Denmark and Ireland will extend their lockdowns. The new strain of the coronavirus is likely to be in the headlines in the near-term but then again so is the vaccine. The University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be rolled out from today after receiving emergency approval from the UK regulatory body."
On the data front, Markit’s manufacturing PMI for December is due at 0930 GMT.
In corporate news Ferguson shareholders are set to share in a cash windfall after the company said it was selling its UK-based Wolseley heating and plumbing distribution business to a private investment firm for £308m.
The iconic brand is being sold to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Ferguson expects the deal to compete by the end of the month and the board plans "to make a return of substantially all of the net cash proceeds of sale to shareholders by way of a special dividend".
Entain has rejected a proposed offer from its US partner MGM Resorts International valuing the owner of Ladbrokes at about £8.1bn.
Entain said it had told MGMRI the proposal "significantly undervalues" the company. It has also asked for more information about the strategic rationale for combining the companies.
QinetiQ detailed a £127m contract from the UK Ministry of Defence to provide engineering services for the Typhoon combat aircraft.
The FTSE 250 company said the contract was won through the Engineering Delivery Partner (EDP) framework, and was included in its announcement on 12 November that total orders achieved through EDP since inception now exceeded £500m. It said the order was a five-year contract for a range of services for Typhoon, from planning and acceptance through to regulatory assurance, trials support and optimisation of in-service capability.