London pre-open: Footsie to start day a tad higher but all eyes still on China

The UK's top flight index was being called to start the day higher by one point after Chinese state-controlled funds waded into the fray, purchasing equities, especially financial issues and those with large weightings in the indices.

That saw the Shanghai Composite Index finish the Friday session lower by 1.97% at 3,186.41.

Nevertheless, investors were expected to continue to be fixated on trying to discern by just how much they needed to mark down their forecasts for Asia's largest economy this year and further out, or not.

In parallel, the US jobs report for December was set to be released at 13:30GMT, although traders said it had fallen out of the spotlight as a result of the gyrations in China's markets.

Nevertheless, the importance of non-farm payrolls data was even greater than usual given the need for job growth and hence consumption to buoy the economy given the negative impact of low oil prices and the strong dollar on factory activity.

"The focus now has shifted towards the pace of inflation, and wage growth or the lack thereof, along with speculation as to how many further rate rises could be in the pipeline further down the track, at a time when inflationary pressures remain muted," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, in a research note sent to clients.

Speaking overnight, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Chicago, Charles Evans, told regional bankers in Wisconsin the US central should not raise rates as many times in 2016 - four to be exact - as was suggested by the Fed's rate-setters at their last policy meeting.

"I believe that policy should plan to follow an even shallower path for the federal funds rate than currently envisioned," Evans said.

On a more positive note for China, at least one economist, Berenberg's Mickey D.Levy, told clients that worries about China were "overstated".

"A modest depreciation of its currency is an appropriate adjustment that is positive for China’s economy and global performance," Levy explained.

Industrial production in Germany registered an unexpected fall in November, sliding 0.3% month-on-month in November (consensus: 0.50%), figuers released on Friday morning revealed.

Data on Britain's international trade in goods and services for the month of November (Investec: -£2.4bn) were set to be released at 09:30GMT.

Disposal programme on track at CRH

CRH's development strategy continued apace in 2015, with a billion-euro disposal list and new investments worth eight billion. The FTSE 100 building materials group confirmed total disposal proceeds of approximately €1bn (£743m) in 2015, comprising the previously announced sale of its clay and concrete product operations in the UK, and the group's clay business in the US - together worth €430m.

Hammerson has signed a deal to sell the Villebon 2 retail park to a consortium of leading French institutional investors for €159m (£116m). The retail park, which was acquired in 2005 and fully owned by Hammerson, is in Villebon-sur-Yvette in the south of Paris and sold for more than the June 2015 book value. It generates gross rent of €8.5m (£6.2m) per year with the centre 99% occupied. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of the financial year.