London pre-open: FTSE 100 set for slight dip at start of trading

Stocks are seen starting the session with slight losses as traders keep their cards close to their chests ahead of this week's US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan policy meetings.

London's FTSE 100 is seen slipping eight points from Friday's closing value of 6,310.44.

As ever, analysts continue to have varying views as to whether the US central bank will in any shape, manner or form signal that a June rate hike is increasingly possible, although financial markets are convinced that no change to current policy settings will be announced on Wednesday.

Japan is a different matter following a report from Bloomberg on Friday that rate-setters in Tokyo might be open to begin paying banks to lend to the economy, together with a move further into negative territory for policy rates.

"We could be in for another rocky week in the markets with particular focus back on the central banks as we get the latest monetary policy decisions from the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan, the latter of which is expected to announce new stimulus measures," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda said in a research note sent to clients.

Regarding Monday's economic calendar, all eyes will be on the German IFO institute's business confidence gauge for the month of April, alongside data on US new home sales later in the session.

The results of the Confederation of British Industry's April survey into industrial trends may also help to shape expectations ahead of the release of UK gross domestic product figures later in the week, with market commentary increasingly flagging the risk of downward surprises.

Linked to the above, cable is 0.33% higher as of 07:45 BST as optimism from last week regarding the Brexit vote on 23 June carries over into today's session.

"The pound was among one of the best performing currencies last week and has continued to rally this morning against the US dollar and euro as markets perceive that the recent intervention by US President Obama, as well as his possible successor Hillary Clinton has shifted the odds towards the “Stay “ camp in the latest polling indicators, dealing a blow to “Brexit” campaigners," Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets said.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index is trading 0.29% lower at 2,951.10.

Allied Minds reports wider loss

Science and technology development company Allied Minds reported a wider loss in 2015 in its annual report on Monday, which it blamed on an increase in its investment in research and development and the creation of four new businesses during the year. The FTSE 250 firm posted a net loss of $97.9m (£67.8m) to 31 December, up 69% from $57.9m in 2014. Its net cash and investments decreased to $194.8m, from $261.5m, while revenues at the group gell to $3.3m from $7.7m.

UK retailer BHS was expected to file for administration on Monday, putting almost 11,000 jobs at risk. Discount retailer Sports Direct had been in talks with BHS owners Retail Acquisitions to buy some of BHS's 164 stores, however buyers have been put off by the company's £571m. pension deficit. BHS was last year sold by the retail entrepreneur Sir Philip Green for £1.

Vodafone's mobile money transfer business has exceeded 25m active users across Africa, Asia and Europe. The FTSE 100 mobile giant said active customer numbers for the service that enables customers with limited access to bank accounts to send and receive money or pay bills increased by 27.1% in the year ended 31 March 2016, boosted by market launches in Albania and Ghana and supported by a network of more than 261,000 agents across 11 countries.