London pre-open: Stocks seen weaker ahead of PMIs

London stocks were expected to open lower on Friday ahead of a slew of PMI surveys.

The FTSE 100 was set to open down 20 points from Thursday’s close at 6,680.

Investors will be looking to the release of purchasing managers’ index surveys for the eurozone at 0900 BST, the UK at 0930 BST and the US at 1445 BST.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “Later this morning we will see for the first time the latest flash July manufacturing and services PMI data for the UK, which will give us an early snapshot ahead of the final numbers which normally come out at the beginning of August.

“Expectations are low with manufacturing and services both expected to slide into contraction territory with numbers of 47.8 and 48.9 respectively, down from June numbers of 52.1 and 52.3. The last time the services sector would have been this weak was back at the end of 2012.”

In corporate news, Vodafone said revenue fell 4.5% to €13.37bn in the first quarter including a 5.3 percentage point negative impact from foreign exchange rate movements

UK service revenue declined 3.2%, reflecting the impact of operational challenges following a billing system migration, lower out of bundle revenues and the benefit of a large enterprise contract win in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year.

Mobile service revenue fell 3.6% with consumer contract in-bundle revenue growth being more than offset by a decline in out of bundle usage compared to the prior year and the impact of expanding roaming propositions in enterprise mobile.

Chief executive Vittorio Colao said European growth remained stable despite regulatory pressure on roaming revenue, with good performance in Germany, Spain and Italy.

“Our growth momentum in AMAP remains strong, with excellent performance in South Africa, Turkey and Egypt and ongoing recovery in India. Customers in multiple markets are attracted by our 'more-for-more' commercial offerings of larger data bundles and extra services, while we are seeing continued success with our fixed broadband and enterprise strategies," he said.

CRH lifted its earnings estimate on Friday, as a result of exceptional trading in the second quarter.

The FTSE 100 firm had indicated on 27 April that total group EBITDA for the first half of 2016 was expected to be close to €1bn.

“Based on the trading performance in the latter part of Q2, we now expect total Group EBITDA for the first half of 2016 to be approximately €1.1bn,” CRH said in a short update.

The company’s full interim report for the first six months of 2016 is scheduled for release on 25 August.