London pre-open: Slightly higher start expected

Trading is expected to get off to a quiet start this week, with investors looking out to the release of a widely-followed
service sector survey Stateside later in the afternoon and the minutes of the Fed´s last rate-setting meeting, on Wednesday, for guidance.

Against that backdrop, the Footsie was expected to start the day nine points higher from last Friday´s closing level of 6,146.05.

Asian stockmarkets were little changed overnight, with investors generally satisfied with last Friday´s monthly jobs data in the US and the relatively dovish stance adopted by the US central bank of late.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange´s Composite Index finished the session up by 0.19% at 3,009.53.

"Clearly the more dovish tone from the last Fed meeting combined with Janet Yellen’s comments last week is of more importance to investors, especially at a time when they’re absolutely convinced that monetary tightening is going to occur at a snail’s pace, at best. Perhaps the minutes from last month’s meeting on Wednesday will shed further light on when we can expected the tightening cycle to continue," said Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at Oanda.

Front month Brent crude futures were continuing to slip lower, retreating by 1.124% to $38.24 per barrel as of 07:51GMT on the ICE.

On 1 April, Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg his country would only freeze its output of crude oil if other major producers, specifically including Iran, did the same.

The Institute for Supply Management´s US service sector purchasing managers´ index was set for release at 15:00GMT.

Mondi named in Russian anti-monopoly investigation

Paper maker Mondi said it had been named in a Russian anti-monopoly investigation, although it had not been officially notified by authorities. The company said in a statement that Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced last week it had started an investigation into Mondi's Syktyvkar for violations of antimonopoly law over offset paper.

FTSE 250 energy services firm Wood Group was celebrating a contract win on Monday morning, announcing it had been awarded a two-year extension to its service provision for the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) in the North Sea. Under the contract, which also includes options for three one-year extensions, Wood Group will continue to deliver engineering, construction and maintenance services to five offshore assets - Cormorant Alpha, North Cormorant, Eider, Tern and Harding. The contract was effective immediately, and extended an agreement in place between Wood Group and TAQA since 2008.

Polymetal International said it has agreed to buy the Komarovskoye gold deposit in Kazakhstan from Glencore for $100m in cash and royalties. The deal should be completed this year, Polymetal said. Polymetal's Net debt/ Adjusted EBITDA will not materially change after the Acquisition compared to 2015 year end (1.97x as at 31/12/2015).