London pre-open: Stocks seen lower as investors eye Brexit talks

London stocks were set to fall at the open on Friday as investors continue to eye Brexit talks.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 26 points lower at 6,525.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Asia markets have finished the week slightly on the back foot, after the Bank of Japan further extended by six months its special corporate financing program in the face of rising cases across Japan, and the rest of Asia in general. This weakness looks set to manifest itself into a similar soft open for markets in Europe as we head into what could be a milestone weekend for EU/UK trade talks.

"For most of yesterday there had been rising optimism that the talking between EU and UK negotiators was heading into the final strait for a possible weekend agreement, however this optimism started to diminish just before the European close, and continued to ebb away further as US markets were closing.

"The divergence between the comments from EU negotiator Michel Barnier earlier in the day, which had expressed optimism about the prospect of a deal by the weekend, and the subsequent downbeat pessimism of Michael Gove, followed by UK chief negotiator David Frost, as well as PM Johnson as markets were closing last night, were a little hard to square with what markets are pricing in."

On the macroeconomic front, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that UK retail sales fell by 3.8% last month as lockdown restrictions took their toll, although this was better than the 4.2% decline expected.

Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "Retail sales will rebound in December, probably to a new record high, as people undertake their pre-Christmas shopping over a narrower time period than usual."

In corporate news, Halma said it had sold its Fiberguide Industries unit to electronic, electrical and fibre optic connection systems firm Molex for $38m (£28.1m) on a cash and debt free basis.

The company said the divestment was is in line with its portfolio management strategy “to ensure it is aligned with its purpose and maintains strong growth and returns over the long term”.

The Restaurant Group said it burnt through £5.5m of cash during the November lockdown and that current tiering restrictions would be “extremely challenging” if extended to the first quarter of 2021.

The owner of Wagamama said it expected a strong recovery when customer activity starts to return to normal.