London pre-open: Stocks seen flat after muted Asia session

London stocks were set to open broadly flat on Friday following a muted session in Asia, after Chinese first quarter GDP met expectations.

The FTSE 100 was seen starting five points lower than Thursday’s close at 6,360.

“Chinese Q1 GDP released Friday early AM slowed to slow to 6.7%, down from 6.8% in Q4. The data confounded some expectations that improved economic performance in February and March would offset the sharp slowdown seen during January. Retail sales and industrial production in China grew faster than expected in March to 10.5% and 6.8% respectively,” said CMC Markets’ Jasper Lawler.

On the UK economic calendar, construction output is due at 0930 BST. In the US, Empire manufacturing is at 1330 BST while industrial production is at 1415 BST and University of Michigan consumer sentiment is at 1500 BST.

FTSE 100 mining firm Rio Tinto and Sinosteel Corporation announced the extension of their Channar Mining joint venture in Australia’s Pilbara region on Friday.

Its board said the joint venture extension, coupled with a separate agreement for Rio Tinto to supply iron ore from the Pilbara, will enable sales of up to 70 million tonnes of iron ore to Sinosteel over the next five years.

The extension will see 30 million tonnes of iron ore supplied into the joint venture, with Sinosteel making a one-off payment of $45m to Rio Tinto. The separate agreement will see Rio Tinto selling up to 40 million tonnes of iron ore to Sinosteel between 2016 and 2021.

In spite of a small £0.5bn net inflow into its raft of hedge funds, Man Group's funds under management shrank very slightly in a volatile first quarter of 2016 for global markets.

Funds under management (FUM) sat at $78.6bn at 31 March, down from $78.7bn at the end of December, which chief executive Manny Roman said was a demonstration of the value and benefits of a diversified business model in what are challenging market conditions for the global investment management industry.