London pre-open: Modest gains expected ahead of manufacturing surveys

Stocks are being called to start the day only modestly higher despite the strong gains seen on Wall Street overnight.

The Footsie is expected to rise by 28 points from Thursday's closing level of 6,376.28.

On Thursdsay, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi left the door open to further stimulus come December, powering a steep climb for stocks on Wall Street and a large drop in the single currency.

That came ahead of next week's US Federal Reserve policy meeting and will likely weigh on policmakers' deliberations.

Manufacturing sector purchasing managers' indices are due to be released both in the Eurozone and Stateside on Friday.

Telecity confident of obtaining clearance for purchase by Equinix

The European Commission has begun a period of market testing based on the commitments proposed by Equinix and TelecityGroup. The aim of both companies is to obtain regulatory clearance for the acquisition of TelecityGroup. The Comission's timetable for review has been automatically extended by 10 days as a result, to 13 November. There is a good prospect that the transaction will be cleared during the Phase I review, although there can be no assurances, Telecity said in a statement.

TalkTalk said a criminal investigation was launched by the Metropolitan Police cyber crime unit on Thursday following a “significant and sustained” cyber-attack on the company’s website. The investigation is ongoing, but the company said there is a chance some names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, TalkTalk account information, credit card details and/or bank details have been compromised.

Workspace has exchanged contracts for two separate acquisitions for a total of £24.4m. The first is for the acquisition of Alexandra House in Wood Green, North London, for £14m. The second is for Cannon Wharf, which is a brand new business centre in Surrey Quays, South East London, for £10.4m, reflecting a capital value of £310 per sq. ft..