London pre-open: Stocks seen lower despite records highs in the US

London stocks were set to drop at the open on Friday despite US equity markets rising to record highs the day before on hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut rates soon.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 20 points lower at 7,404.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said the rebound in the pound could curb the appetite for UK stocks, but investors should continue piling in to mining shares as gold trades above the $1,400 level.

"Energy stocks could also outperform regardless of a stronger pound before the OPEC+ meeting scheduled on July 1 and 2," she said.

Concerns about escalating tensions between the US and Iran were likely to weigh on markets after the New York Times reported late on Thursday that US President Trump approved military strikes on several Iranian targets but then pulled back from launching the attacks.

On the UK data front, public sector net borrowing figures for May are due at 0930 BST.

In corporate news, Sports Direct said it would vote against the reappointment of the board at Goals Soccer Centres over the football pitch operator's refusal to allow it to hire corporate investigator Kroll to look into a range of accounting issues at the troubled firm.

Mike-Ashley-owned Sports Direct holds a 19% in Goals, which in March discovered that it owed more than £12m in unpaid tax. Its shares have been suspended.

Halma has agreed to buy Ampac Group, a maker of fire detection systems in Australia and New Zealand, for AUD135m (£74m) in cash.

The company said the deal was part of its strategy to buy companies it works with to accelerate growth in fire detection markets.

Meggitt has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), with the aerospace engineering business set to develop advanced cooling systems for next generation ground combat platforms.

GDLS recently won US Government backing to procure more than $250m worth of these new cooling systems.