London pre-open: Stocks seen a little firmer; Brexit in focus

London stocks were set to open a little firmer on Monday, taking their cue from a positive Asian session, although the pound was under pressure as Prime Minister Theresa May said Article 50 would be triggered by March 2017.

The FTSE 100 was set to open 11 points higher than Friday’s close at 6,910.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “She also announced that she would introduce legislation to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, with all existing EU laws rolled into UK law, though as far as further detail was concerned she didn’t expand much further.

"Despite the volatility seen in Q3 it turned out to be a fairly decent quarter for equity markets, with the FTSE100 posting its best performance since 2013, however Q4 could prove to be much trickier given the events coming up on the horizon, including an Italian referendum and US Presidential election, and we still have the not insignificant problem of a broken European banking system crippled by negative rates.”

On the data front, UK manufacturing PMI is at 0930 BST, while in the US, construction spending and ISM manufacturing are at 1500 BST.

In corporate news, Henderson Group has agreed a $6bn merger with US fund management peer Janus Capital.

The combination, which will leave the UK company's shareholders owning 57% of the enlarged group, will create a company with more than $320bn assets under management and is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2017. Henderson's final dividend this year will be paid but its planned £25m share buyback would be cancelled. Management have already targeted at least $110m of annual cost savings to be taken out over the next three years.

FTSE 100 listed quality assurance provider Intertek bought EWA Canada, a cyber security specialist, from Electronic Warfare Associates to take hold of an opportunity in the internet of things market.

EWA-Canada will enable Intertek to perform security evaluations on its products and networks and provide custom security assurance solutions to its customers as well as expand EWA-Canada's customer base.

AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm MedImmune has entered into a licensing agreement with Allergan for the global rights to MEDI2070, which is currently in a Phase IIb clinical trial for moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease and ready for Phase II for ulcerative colitis.

Under the terms of the deal, Allergan will make an upfront payment to AstraZeneca of $250m for the exclusive, worldwide licence to develop and commercialise the drug.