London pre-open: Stocks seen higher ahead of UK jobs data

Stocks in London were set to open higher on Wednesday as investors eyed some key UK jobs data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 23 points firmer than Tuesday’s close at 6,815.

On the data front, the UK claimant count, unemployment rate and average weekly earnings are at 0930 GMT. In the US, the producer price index is at 1330 GMT and industrial output is at 1415 GMT.

Societe Generale said: “This month's set of labour data is likely to prove a very undramatic affair with little movement in the key numbers. Unemployment should be quite stable. Indeed, we even see the possibility of a small fall of 2k in the claimant count in October after an insignificant increase of 0.7k in September.

“The LFS unemployment rate should hold at 4.9% in the three months to September. The earnings numbers should also be stable over the same period.”

In corporate news, housebuilder Barratt Developments issued a trading update for the period from 1 July to 13 November on Wednesday, with the board saying overall market conditions remained healthy.

The FTSE 100 firm posted a sales rate of 0.74 net private reservations per active outlet per average week, compared to 0.71 for the same period a year earlier.

Total forward sales - including joint ventures - were up by 4.3% to £2,654.3m, with wholly owned forward sales up 19.5% to £2,466.1m.

Rolls-Royce said said its outlook for 2016 remained unchanged for revenue, profit and cash.

The company said it would benefit from weaker sterling and life cycle cost reductions which would more than offset higher engineering and programme costs in its civil aerospace unit.

Rolls said other businesses were overall in line with expectations, despite “mixed” market conditions.

Severn Trent’s water subsidiary is to buy Dee Valley Group, a water service provider, for about £78.5m.

The acquisition expands the company’s subsidiary, Severn Trent Water’s offering in neighbouring areas in Wales and England.