London pre-open: Stocks seen higher as investors digest China data

London stocks were expected to open higher on Thursday following the release of encouraging Chinese data, as investors eyed data on UK manufacturing.

The FTSE 100 was set to open 24 points firmer than Wednesday’s close at 6,805.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “The latest Chinese manufacturing PMI surveys for August did offer up some optimism even though the Caixin measure slowed to 50, down from 50.6. The official measure improved slightly to 50.4, almost a two year high, which is encouraging after a fashion, though if 50.4 is a cause for celebration then it merely goes to show that investors are clutching at straws. On the flip side official services number slowed slightly to 53.5 from 53.9.”

On the data front, UK manufacturing PMI is at 0930 BST. In the US, initial jobless claims are at 1330 BST, while construction spending and ISM manufacturing are at 1500 BST.

In corporate news, Safestore said that after a solid third quarter's trading, it was confident that adjusted earnings would be slightly ahead of current market expectations.

The self-storage group generated sales of £28.6m in the three months to 31 July, which up 9.2% on a like-for-like basis, or 6.6% if excluding the effect of currency rates.

AstraZeneca announced on Thursday morning that it has completed its commercialisation agreement with Aspen Global Incorporated, for rights to its global anaesthetics portfolio outside the US.

The FTSE 100 pharmaceutical firm said the agreement covers seven established medicines - Diprivan, EMLA, Xylocaine, Marcaine, Naropin, Carbocaine and Citanest.

“As AstraZeneca will retain a significant ongoing interest in the portfolio, the upfront payment - to be recognised in the third quarter of 2016 - along with all future milestone and royalty payments, will be reported as externalisation revenue in the company’s financial statements,” AstraZeneva’s board said in a statement.

FTSE 250 payment solutions provider Paysafe has acquired affiliate technology business Income Access Group for a cash consideration of CAD40m.

Founded in 2002 and based in Montreal, with employees in Vancouver, London and Brisbane, Income Access provides innovative affiliate technology for businesses to manage their performance marketing programmes.

Paysafe president and chief executive officer Joel Leonoff said: "By adding Income Access's affiliate technology to our product suite alongside our Skrill and NETELLER brands and deepening our merchant relationships, this transaction delivers on Paysafe's strategic objectives to provide relevant payment solutions that serve the evolving needs of our merchants.”