London pre-open: Stocks seen higher as hopes of loose monetary policy underpin sentiment

Stocks in London are expected to post modest gains at the open as the prospect of loose monetary policy continues to underpin sentiment.

The FTSE 100 index is seen opening up 24 points at 6323.

On the macroeconomic front, there are no major UK data releases due, but eyes will be on the US, where trade balance figures for August will be released at 1330 BST.

US dollar pushes SABMiller revenues down

SABMiller’s group net producer revenue has risen by four percent after a strong second quarter, but the US dollar caused the company some issues. The beer and soft drink producer released its trading update for the six months to 30 September on Tuesday, ahead of schedule sue to the offer period.

On a constant currency basis, revenue for the quarter grew six percent after strong results in Africa and Latin America, as well as overall beverage volume growth of two percent.

However on a reported basis, it declined by 9% for both the half and the quarter due to the impact of the company’s key operating currencies against the US dollar.

Low-cost airline EasyJet’s September passenger numbers grew 7.6% from the same month last year to 6.61m. The load factor, meanwhile, which measures how full the planes were, rose 0.9 percentage point from last year to 93.1%.

Bakery chain Greggs said sales in the third 13 weeks to October were slightly ahead of its expectations and it expects the full-year to be ahead of previous guidance, although it warned over wage pressures. Greggs said like-for-like sales in the period grew by 4.9%%, better than it was expecting, while total sales were up 5%.