London pre-open: Stocks seen higher amid raft of earnings

London stocks were expected open higher on Thursday following declines in the previous session.

The FTSE 100 was seen opening 18 points higher than Wednesday’s close at 6,130.

On the data front, UK services PMI is at 0930 BST while US initial jobless claims are at 1330 BST.

“Given how important the services sector is to the UK economy we really need to see a decent number here or run the risk that we see a growth downgrade next week from the latest Bank of England inflation report,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, adding that expectations are for a slight decline to 53.6 from 53.7.

“While the overall mood this week has been of a rather downbeat nature due to concerns about slowing global growth, some of the economic data on both sides of the Atlantic did show some positive signs in patches. Amongst the more positive performers we saw Spanish and German PMI’s come in at the higher end of expectations, as services PMI’s for April came in broadly as expected, though retail sales numbers for the broader euro area for March were disappointing, declining 0.5%.”

Barclays has sold down its stake in its African subsidiary to 50.1% after a placing in South Africa at a price of 126 rand (584p) that valued the shares at 13.05bn rand (£603m). Confirming an announcement from late on Wednesday, Barclays' investment bank coordinated a placing of 12.2% of Barclays Africa shares and the group has agreed a 90-day lockup over the remaining majority stake.

Heavyweight insurer RSA said first quarter underwriting results were “good” with operating profits up strongly as a consequence.

Net written premiums were down slightly quarter-on-quarter to £1.57bn from £1.59bn.

Fuel was the saviour of the first quarter at Morrisons, with like-for-like sales increasing 0.7% without it and 1.2% with it in the 13 weeks to 1 May, the supermarket chain reported on Thursday.

Total sales excluding fuel were down 1.8%, and down 0.9% including it. It was the second consecutive quarter of positive like-for-like sales growth.

"We are encouraged by progress across our six priorities. There is still much to do and our colleagues are working very hard to improve the shopping trip and save customers every penny we can. Customers are responding and satisfaction levels remain ahead of last year,” said chief executive David Potts.