London open: Shares higher ahead of US jobs report

London stocks opened higher on Friday as investors looked to the release of the monthly US nonfarm payrolls report later in the day.

The report was expected to come under particularly close scrutiny after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week that any hike to interest rates would be dependent on upcoming data.

As of 0823 BST the FTSE 100 was trading up by 12.18 points to 6,758.84.

Rabobank said: “It’s blindingly obvious what market attention will be focused on today. The headline expectation is a decent 180K, down from a blistering 255K in July. However, a word of warning. As Bloomberg has recently noted, August tends to see downside surprises to expectations in this key series. Hence, we might end up with another ‘oops!’ moment, just as we did back in early June with the May jobs data, which subsequently pushed the Fed off the hiking trail (if they were ever really on it) in the summer.”

UK construction PMI was scheduled for release at 0930 BST. In the US, the nonfarm payrolls report was set to be published at 1330 BST, along with the unemployment rate and trade balance figures.

In corporate news, productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls company Spectris said it has completed the acquisition of the entire share capital of Millbrook Group from Rutland Partners and Millbrook's management shareholders.

The FTSE 250 firm said the purchase consideration totalled £122m, on a debt and cash-free basis, and will be met from existing cash and bank facilities.

A total of £3.4m of the purchase price will be deferred for 24 months.

Trading at Segro since the end of the second quarter had seen occupational demand remain strong. The property developer’s vacancy rate remained low and the firm saw net absorption of existing space.

From 30 June, the company had signed pre-let agreements for 188,600 square meters across Europe, which the firm expected would result in £6.0m of new annualised headline rent, while the pipeline of near-term opportunities remained encouraging.

Retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone reported a rise in revenue in the year to the end of August but said there has been evidence of some weakness in the secondary housing market since its update at the end of June.

Sales were up 31% to around £635m, with legal completions 20% higher at 2,299 units. The company said its land bank increased to approximately 10,206 plots from 10,087.

Passenger transport operator Go-Ahead Group posted its preliminary full-year results for the year to 2 July on Friday, with its overall results slightly ahead of management expectations.

The FTSE 250 firm achieved its £100m bus target, with adjusted operating profit there up 8% to £100.4m. Regional bus operations saw a 9.4% rise in adjusted operating profit to £53.3m, while London bus adjusted operating profit rose 6.3% to £47.1m.