London pre-open: Stocks seen higher as Turkish coup fails

London stocks were expected to open higher on Monday as investors breathe a sigh of relief that the Turkish government has taken back control following an attempted military coup.

The FTSE 100 was set to open 21 points higher than Friday’s close at 6,690.

CMC Markets’ Jasper Lawler said: “The failure of the coup and a reassertion of Turkish government control appear to have allayed concerns of rising geopolitical risk on Europe’s border. As such, European stocks look set to open mostly higher on Monday, adding last week’s advance.

“The British pound is rising early on Monday ahead of a talk from the Bank of England’s Martin Weale on Brexit and a meeting of EU foreign ministers. Sterling had fallen the most in two weeks on Friday after BOE chief economist Andy Haldane added to speculation the central bank would add stimulus at its August policy meeting after holding fire in July. Nonetheless, the Bank of England on hold, even with hints of action at its next meeting in August could deter more speculative shorts for the time being.”

Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Martin Weale will make a speech at 0915 BST.

In corporate news, ARM Holdings' directors have agreed a £23.4bn takeover offer by Japan's Softbank, in what could be the first major move sparked by the post-Brexit collapse in the value of the pound.

The board of the Cambridge-based chip designer, which is a major supplier of components for smartphones made by the likes of Apple and Samsung, said it unanimously recommended the 1,700p-per-share cash offer, which is a 43% premium to the 1,188.73p price at which trading closed on Friday.

AstraZeneca announced on Monday that the Phase III AURA3 trial has met its primary endpoint, demonstrating superior progression-free survival (PFS) compared to standard platinum-based doublet chemotherapy.

The FTSE 100 pharmaceutical giant said the AURA3 randomised trial assessed the efficacy and safety of Tagrisso as a second-line treatment in more than 400 patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive, locally-advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, whose disease had progressed following first-line EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy.

Tagrisso also demonstrated a safety profile consistent with previous trials, the company reported.

British Land said it was too early to properly assess the impact of the referendum result on its markets but it did expect some occupiers and investors to take a more cautious approach.

“British Land has entered this period of post-referendum uncertainty in a robust position,” it said in a trading update.

"We had a good quarter of activity in the lead up to the referendum. In the short period since, we are pleased to have exchanged on the sale of Debenhams, Oxford Street and completed further lettings across the office and retail portfolios.”

The Debenhams flagship store was sold for £400m. British Land also exchanged 17 long term retail leases totalling 58,000 sq ft on terms agreed prior to the referendum at 9.5% ahead of ERV.