London pre-open: Stocks seen muted ahead of payrolls
Updated : 07:30
London stocks were set for a muted open on Friday as investors err on the side of caution ahead of the latest US non-farm payrolls report.
The FTSE 100 was called to open unchanged at 7,120.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Asia this morning equity markets look set to close out the week in modestly positive fashion, with the Nikkei 225 closing the week higher and the ASX200 closing just below yesterday’s record high. Markets here in Europe look set to open mixed, as investors mark time ahead of today’s numbers.
"Consensus expectations are for 870k new jobs to be added in July, having come down from 925k just over a week ago, with a range of expectations between 350k at the low end to 1.6m on the optimistic side. That’s a spread and a half, good luck trying to pick the bones out of that.
"On the plus side, if we do get a move higher in the participation rate to 61.8%, as forecasts suggest, that might be a small step in the right direction and offer some comfort to central bank officials that normality is slowly returning. The only obstacle to that is that infection rates are rising again in some US states which means that the incentives to return to the work force might get delayed a little bit further."
In corporate news, London Stock Exchange Group more than doubled profits in the first half the year as total income grew 4.6%.
The company said adjusted pre-tax profits came in at £1.03bn from £435m a year ago. Adjusted operating expenses grew 1.1% and £77m in synergies had been achieved from the acquisition of Refinitiv.
Elsewhere, Hikma Pharmaceuticals reported a rise in first-half profit and revenue as it hailed a strong performance in both the generics and branded segments, and resilience in the injectables business.
Reported pre-tax profit rose to $319m from $274m in the first half of 2020, with revenue up 7% at $1.2bn.