London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on weak US and Asian cues

London stocks are set to open lower, taking their cue from downbeat sessions in the US and Asia.

The FTSE 100 is seen starting 20 points lower than Thursday’s close at 6,082.

“While Wednesday’s Fed rate hike removed one cloud of uncertainty from the markets thinking in 2015, speculation about when the next one is likely to occur is not expected to remain too far away, given the divergence between what policymakers expect to occur one year on from here, on their dot plot expectations, and what investors expect to happen,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

“This is likely to be the Fed’s next challenge given that no one in the markets seriously expects US rates to be anywhere near 1.375% a year from now, which would imply four rate hikes, one at every meeting with a press conference. Given that two of those press conference meetings book end next year’s Presidential election, it is highly unlikely that the Fed would move on rates in the lead up to such an event.”

BG Group gets federal approval for LNG facility

BG Group said it had received approval from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate a natural gas liquefaction and export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

FERC approval is the key remaining regulatory consent for the Lake Charles LNG project, which BG Group is developing with Energy Transfer Equity LP and Energy Transfer Partners.

Intertek Group took a big bite of Italian on Friday, as it reached agreement to purchase Food International Trust (FIT-Italia).

FIT-Italia specialised in providing food quality assurance services to the retail and agricultural sectors, Intertek said in a market announcement. It was founded in 2007, remained privately owned and generated revenues of €2m in 2014.

The sale price was not immediately clear on Friday morning.

"To date, FIT-Italia is the only Italian company accredited to deliver the IFS Food Store Inspection program, an initiative developed by retailers and recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative", a company spokesperson said in the announcement.

Intertek chief executive Andre Lacroix said the acquisition would strengthen the group's position on the food sector.

GlaxoSmithKline’s HIV business has reached a couple of deals with Bristol-Myers Squibb to acquire its late-stage HIV research and development assets as well as its portfolio of preclinical and discovery stage HIV research assets.

GSK will pay $350m (£234m) upfront as well as development and first commercial sale milestones of up to $518M and $587m on each deal.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016.