London pre-open: Stocks seen up on positive Asian cues

London stocks were set to gain at the open on Monday, taking their cue from a positive Asian session.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 38 points higher at 7,502.

US markets will be closed for Labor Day.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Last week ended on a positive note, and this week started with a solid risk appetite, as the US jobs data hinted at a finally loosening jobs market, while Chinese stocks rallied on further measures deployed by the Chinese government to support the country’s faltering property market.

"In the US, Friday’s jobs data was good, in terms of Federal Reserve (Fed) expectations. The US economy added 187K new nonfarm jobs last month, above expectations, but the unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.8% as the participation rate rose. The wages growth fell from 4.4% to 4.3% in August. The US 2-year yield, which is the most sensitive to changes in Fed expectations, tipped a toe below the 4.80% level, as investors took the opportunity to increase their bets that the Fed is certainly done with its rate hikes this cycle. Activity on Fed funds futures gives around 93% chance for another skip at the September meeting, and the probability of a pause in November has almost jumped to two thirds."

In corporate news, engineering company Wood Group said it had struck a $330m services agreement with North Sea oil and gas producer Harbour Energy.

Under the deal, Wood will provide engineering, procurement and construction and operations and maintenance services, including digital and decarbonisation solutions, for a number of Harbour's offshore assets.

The partnership will run for an initial term of five years, with five one-year extension options covering Harbour's operated assets, including its J-Area, Greater Britannia Area, Solan and Armada, Everest, Lomond and Erskine hubs.

Elsewhere, online trading platform CMC Markets said it had appointed Albert Soleiman as chief financial officer, replacing Euan Marshall, who has retired from the board.

Soleiman first joined CMC in 2005 and became group head of tax in 2008. In 2019 he joined Bitfury UK as global tax director before rejoining CMC in 2020 to lead the launch of the CMC Invest business.

Marshall will remain with the group for the next few months to "support the orderly transition" of the CFO role, the company said.

FTSE 250 facilities management group Mitie said it was spending £31.5m to buy Stevenage-based JC Engineering, a specialist in cooling systems for data centres.

Mitie, which provides everything from commercial cleaning to engineering maintenance and landscaping, said the acquisition price comprises an initial payment of £21m and deferred payments of up to £10.5m over three years, linked to performance.