London pre-open: Shares seen lower as China Covid surge weighs

London stocks are set to open lower on Thursday as investors fretted about surging Covid cases in China and Beijing’s decision to lift travel bans.

The FTSE 100 index is seen to be 0.39% lower at 7467.5 points.

US officials overnight joined other countries in demanding negative Covid tests from all travellers arriving from mainland China.

Beijing has announced a dismantling of its strict zero-Covid policy which had led to protests across the country over its impact on the economy. On Monday, the country said it would bring an end to mandatory quarantine on arrival, leading to a spike in travel plans by citizens.

Japan, Taiwan, Italy, Malaysia and South Korea have all announced to deal with an expected influx of travellers from China.

Officials in Washington expressed concerns over virus-related data released by the Chinese government.

With the New Year holiday approaching there was understandably a dearth of major corporate news.

The only development of note was the detention on France of Ferrexpo owner Kostyantin Zhevago at the request of Ukrainian authorities over matters related to on suspicion of money laundering and embezzling funds linked to his banking business.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com