London pre-open: Stocks seen slightly higher amid firmer oil prices
Stocks in London were set to open a little higher on Monday amid firmer oil prices, at the start of what is expected to be a fairly quiet week in the run-up to Christmas.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 17 points higher than Friday’s close at 7,028.
CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “As we head into the final full trading week of 2016, having come off a decent December so far for European stocks which have seen a number of significant breakouts, the key question as we head into year-end is whether these gains of the past two weeks are likely to be sustained.
“Initial impressions look positive, however the elephant in the room remains the Italian banking sector after last week’s announcement by Italy’s largest bank UniCredit to draw a line under its recent problems by announcing a significant recapitalisation plan.”
There are no major UK data releases due.
In corporate news, Electra Private Equity is due to receive roughly £405m proceeds from the £1.35bn sale of Parkdean Resorts to Canadian investors Onex Corporation.
The deal, which is expected to complete on 1 March 2017, will see an uplift of £25m on Electra's book value in September and equivalent to an increase in its NAV of 50p per share.
BP on Monday said it had signed an agreement to take a 10% stake in Abu Dhabi's ADCO onshore oil concession for an undisclosed sum.
In addition to the interest in the ADCO concession, BP will become a 10% shareholder in ADCO, the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations Limited, which operates the 40 year concession.
Intellectual property-based business developer IP Group announced the creation of Microbiotica on Monday, which it described as a newly formed spin-out company from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute established to commercialise the institute's research into the role of the human microbiome in disease.
The FTSE 250 company said it was co-leading the investment with Cambridge Innovation Capital, a Cambridge-based investor in technology and healthcare companies in which IP Group is a shareholder, with a £4m contribution from each party to provide total initial funding of £8m.
Investment manager Brewin Dolphin is to buy Duncan Lawrie Asset Management for £25.5m along with a payment of £2.5m, to reflect the value of net assets in the business.
The acquisition, which is subsidiary of the private banking arm of London-listed Camellia and has £735m of funds under management, is expected to be completed by the first half of 2017.