London pre-open: Stocks set to track gains on Wall Street
Stocks in London are seen starting the Christmas week slightly higher following another record-breaking session on Wall Street and more good news around international trade.
The FTSE 100 is seen rising by nine points to reach 7,573.
On Friday, the US S&P 500 finished at its highest level ever, closing in the green for a seventh straight session - its best run in more than two years - and clocked in with its best weekly advance since September.
Providing a further boost to investor sentiment, on Monday morning, China's ministry of finance announced a one-year long reduction in tariffs for 859 different types of products.
The move was aimed at meeting Beijing's recent pledges to open up the Chinese economy more, but was unrelated to the ongoing US-China trade talks.
No major economic releases were scheduled in the UK.
Stateside, a preliminary reading on durable goods orders in November was scheduled for release at 1330 GMT, followed by data on new home sales during that same month at 1500 GMT.
China gives 'green light' to Astra treatment
AstraZeneca announced on Monday that ‘budesonide/glycopyrronium/formoterol fumarate’ has been approved in China for the maintenance treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said it was the first approval by the National Medical Products Administration for a triple-combination therapy in a pressurised metered-dose inhaler (pMDI), which uses its ‘Aerosphere’ delivery technology. At the same time, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ‘Enhertu’ - fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki - for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, who had received two or more prior anti-HER2 based regimens in the metastatic setting.
Anglo American has received the next phase of its operating licence for its Minas-Rio tailings facility in Brazil, following the work to raise the dam as part of the step three licence area of the mine, it announced on Monday. The FTSE 100 company said the regulatory authorities in Brazil granted the installation licence for the work in January 2018, with the construction work completed in accordance with that licence in August of this year.
Derwent London has exchanged contracts to sell its long leasehold interest in 40 Chancery Lane, WC2, to Deka Immobilien for a headline price of £121.3m, it said on Monday. The FTSE 250 firm said the 103,700 square foot office and retail building was let to Publicis Groupe until July 2035, with a tenant break in July 2033, at a net income of £5.5m per annum. It said the sale price represented a net yield to the purchaser of 4.25%, with the disposal price net of rental top-ups and costs being 3.8% above June book value.