London pre-open: Stocks seen lower as oil prices decline

London stocks were set to open lower on Thursday amid weaker oil prices.

The FTSE 100 was set to open 44 points lower than Wednesday’s close at 6,822.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “European markets look set to open mixed following on from these US declines after a rather mixed session yesterday, with the FTSE100 managing to finish the day higher, largely as a result of a weak pound, as the Bank of England put aside the failed gilt auction of Tuesday to cover fully their auction of yesterday.

“With the latest OPEC data showing that Saudi Arabia posted record output in July it became clear that for all the chatter about a production freeze, and predictions of higher demand that any agreement would have to overcome significant hurdles from the main swing producers, which at this moment appears unlikely. Russia has already ruled out a move this week and given Saudi is pumping at a record rate it would seem unlikely that Iran would be prepared to step back from its ambition to get production back to its pre sanction levels of nearly 4m barrels a day.”

There are no major UK data releases due, but in the US, initial jobless claims are at 1330 BST.

In corporate news, Tui Group's revenues shrank in the third quarter but the travel group was still confident of hitting its full year targets and said it was pleased with the start to early trading for the winter season and Summer 2017.

Turnover of €4.6bn in the three months to 30 June was down 5.7% on the same period, and short of analysts expectations, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 1.1% to €180m.

Legal & General Group has agreed the sale of its Cofunds investment platform to Aegon for £140m. The acquisition, which includes the Investor Portfolio Service platform as well as Cofunds' retail and institutional business, will increase the Solvency II surplus by £125m, and its Economic Capital surplus by £105m.

European soft drink bottler Coca-Cola HBC reported its results for the six-month period to 1 July on Thursday morning, with FX-neutral net sales revenue growing by 2.4%, or 3.0% taking into account the one less selling day.

The FTSE 100 company said currencies were continuing to impact adversely, leading to a 3.6% decline in net sales revenue to €1.193bn.

It posted a “robust increase” in FX-neutral revenue per case of 2.4% to €4.02, mainly due to better pricing trends across all segments compared to the prior-year period and a 110 basis point improvement in package mix.