London pre-open: Stocks seen higher as investors digest Trump speech

Stocks in London were set for a firmer open on Wednesday as investors digested US President Donald Trump's first address to Congress and looked ahead to some key UK manufacturing data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 21 points higher than Tuesday's close at 7,284.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said: "Donald Trump’s first congressional address didn’t trigger a storm as feared, yet failed to satiate investors due to a serious lack of details.

"As expected, Donald Trump announced significant rise in the defence budget and the reinforcement of immigration laws. He reiterated his focus on jobs creation and cited that many US companies including Ford Motor, Wal-Mart and Softbank Group announced ‘billions of dollars in investment’ which would create ‘thousands of new American jobs’, without however giving accurate numbers and a clear strategy for the future. The freshly elected US President said he would spend up to $1 trillion in infrastructure, twice as much as $500 billion hinted following his election. However, he has avoided key subjects such as the financing of the extra spending, the federal deficit, amendments to regulations and the banks."

On the data front, investors will eye Markit's manufacturing PMI at 0930 GMT, along with consumer credit and mortgage approvals data.

In corporate news, international distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl said it had agreed to buy US-based Diversified Distribution Systems (DDS) for an undisclosed sum.

DDS distributes not-for-resale goods and value-added services to retailers and other general distribution customers, principally throughout North America but also in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Bunzl said.

Based in Minneapolis and with four distribution centres in the US and several third party logistic arrangements internationally, the business supplies a wide range of packaging, consumables and operating store supplies through a variety of distribution and outsourcing programmes.

Building materials distributor Wolseley has appointed BBA Aviation's Mike Powell as chief financial officer and an executive director, effective from 1 June.

Powell is currently finance director at BBA Aviation, a position he has held since July 2014, and was previously chief financial officer at AZ Electronic Materials, a Luxembourg-based chemicals company and Nippon Sheet Glass, a Tokyo-based glass manufacturer.

CRH posted its full-year results for the 2016 calendar year, with sales revenue of €27.1bn, a 15% rise year-on-year, or a 4% proforma improvement, while EBITDA was up 41% on a reported basis to €3.13bn, or up 10% on a proforma basis.

ITV has pledged to pay a special dividend on top of a full year dividend up 20% as it reported a decline in broadcast revenues for 2016 and warned that advertising revenues would fall in the early months of 2017.

With broadcast and online revenue down 1% total turnover rose 4% thanks to good growth from the ITV Studios television production arm, feeding through to roughly flat pre-tax profits .

Investors in the UK will also be mulling over the latest data from mortgage lender Nationwide, which showed house prices unexpectedly picked up in February.

House prices were up 0.6% on the month compared with 0.2% in January. On an annual basis, prices were up 4.5% compared to 4.3% in January. Economists had expected prices to increase 0.2% on the month and slow 4% on the year.