London pre-open: Stocks to edge up as Brits head to the polls

London stocks were set to edge up at the open on Thursday as Brits headed to the polls amid expectations the Labour party will be voted into power for the first time in 14 years.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 15 points higher.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Labour is walking into this election with more than 20 points advance over the Tories - even the most Conservative parts of the country seem tired of a 14-year Tory rule.

"The two most likely scenarios are a good Labour majority with 150 seats - which is almost double Boris Johnson’s 80-seat majority in 2019 - or a supermajority. Both will give the Labour a very large margin to pass whatever reforms they want to pass in the coming years. Normally, investors prefer Conservatives as they have a better grip on spending and debt levels. But this time, even investors want to see Labour take over the reins. For Wall Street, a Labour win is positive for both the UK stocks and sterling.

"Small and medium-sized British stocks will likely benefit more from a Labour win than the FTSE 100 - which is mostly exposed to the global market conditions. Cable rallied to 1.2772 yesterday and is consolidating gains near 1.2740 at the time of writing. Combined with a soft dollar, we could see the end of the Tory rule support the pound and back a move toward 1.30."

In corporate news, precision instrument maker Spectris said it was buying US-based SciAps for up to $260m (£205m).

The deal is comprised of an up-front payment of $200m plus a deferred element of up to $60m payable on the delivery of agreed financial metrics.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, SciAps is a specialist provider of handheld instruments for materials analysis.

Great Portland Estates reported robust leasing activity in the quarter ended 30 June, with 12 new leases and renewals generating an annual rent of £4.3m, and market lettings averaging 7.7% above March ERV.

The FTSE 250 company completed a £350m rights issue in June to capitalise on emerging opportunities in the central London real estate market, aiming to enhance shareholder returns through acquisitions and developments.

Additionally, GPE exchanged contracts to acquire The Courtyard, WC1, and was tracking around £1.3bn in acquisition opportunities, anticipating the investments to be accretive to earnings and support a total accounting return target of over 10%.