London pre-open: Stocks seen lower as attention turns to Jackson Hole

London stocks were set to open a little lower on Monday as investors look to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech at Jackson Hole at the end of the week.

The FTSE 100 was expected to open 17 points lower than Friday’s close at 6,843.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “This week the focus is likely to be on central banks once more with the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday, and recent comments from Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda suggesting that he could push interest rates in Japan even more negative, while Fed vice Chair Stanley Fischer tried to buoy up expectations of some Fed action this year by saying that the US central bank was within striking distance of its inflation target.

“Against this backdrop it was perhaps inevitable that we’d see a little bit of profit taking last week, in the wake of the latest Fed minutes and the insistence of other Fed officials that a September rate rise was still on the table.”

There are no major UK or US data due on Monday.

In corporate news, venture capital-style investor Allied Minds has arranged a one-year debt facility Silicon Valley Bank in the US, while a UK-based subsidiary has raised funds for a biotech project from institutional investors.

Secured over certain group assets, the $20m one-year facility from the SVB has diversified the capital structure and is "a powerful endorsement of the group's growth and development prospects", said chief executive Chris Silva.

Elsewhere, Polymetal International has approved the de-bottlenecking project at the Amursk POX plant that will expand capacity by around 50% in terms of concentrate processed.

"We believe capital-light debottlenecking of the Amursk POX plant is the best approach given the steady increase in Polymetal's refractory reserve base", said chief executive officer Vitaly Nesis.

"The project leverages existing infrastructure and skills base to strengthen our competitive advantage in the industry and materially improve the economics of our flagship Kyzyl project.”