London pre-open: Stocks seen touch higher as investors eye US-Russia relations

London stocks were set for a slightly firmer open on Monday as investors continued to digest last week's weaker-than-expected non-farm payrolls report and kept an eye on developments between Russia and the US following the US missile attack on Syria.

The FTSE 100 was expected to open six points higher at 7,355.

London Capital Group analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: "European and UK stocks are expected to benefit from a light, risk-on mood at the open, helped by the softer euro and pound after the US jobs data failed to bring the USD-bears back to the market.

"Released on Friday, the US nonfarm payrolls data has been a big miss. The US economy added 98,000 new non-farm jobs in March, versus 174,000 expected by analysts. Last month’s read has been revised down to 219,000 from 235,000. The average earnings grew at the steady pace of 0.2% on the same month."

Meanwhile, market participants were also likely to be looking closely at the relationship between the US and Russia after President Putin and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani said the US had crossed a "red line" with its missile strikes on Syria last week.

On the corporate front, City watchdogs have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive's attempts to uncover the identity of a secret whistleblower at the bank.

After its own investigation, the FTSE 100 bank has issue a formal written reprimand to CEO Jes Staley and will cut his bonus by a "very significant" amount, as well as passing the details onto the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Miner Anglo American is to sell its Eskom-tied thermal coal operations in South Africa to Seriti Resources Holdings Proprietary, a company majority owned by historically disadvantaged South Africans, for 2.3bn rand ($164m).

The assets include the New Vaal, New Denmark and Kriel collieries, as well as four closed collieries, with the sale resulting in Seriti becoming the second largest provider of thermal coal to Eskom, a public electricity utility, supplying almost a quarter of Eskom's current annual coal requirements.

A Carillion joint venture has been awarded the Hestia South East and London Region Multi Activity Contract with a potential value of up to £200m across an initial contract period of five years.

Under the contract, the JV will deliver a range of soft facilities management services, including catering, retail and leisure, and hotel and mess services, for 87 key Defence sites across Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire and Central and Greater London. The contract will go live at the beginning of September 2017 and will employ over 1800 people.

There are no major UK data releases due.