London pre-open: Stocks to open in the black

Stocks in London were set for a firmer open on Monday as investors in Europe get their first chance to react to the US presidential debate over the weekend.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 19 points higher than Friday’s close at 7,063.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “Stock markets in Asia, the ones that were open anyway, appeared to be preoccupied with the second instalment of the Clinton/Trump debate, with Republican candidate Donald Trump seemingly intent on pressing the self-destruct button on his campaign, and alienating his own party in the process.

“While Mr Trump appeared to hold his own in the debate the tone showed no signs of becoming any more civilised. Against this sort of backdrop its hard to see how Hillary Clinton can lose, which may offer some comfort to investors, given that in a lot of quarters she is perceived as the lesser of two evils, and a pretty poor candidate.”

There are no major UK data releases due.

In corporate news, William Hill confirmed it was in merger talks with Toronto-listed Amaya Inc, owner of the PokerStars website, having rejected offers from smaller UK rivals in the summer.

The FTSE 250-listed bookmaker, responding after rumours about the negotiations emerged at the weekend, said a potential deal would be classified as a reverse takeover.

SVG Capital said on Monday that it has not received an offer from US rival HarbourVest Bidco for its investment portfolio.

It made the statement in response to a press release issued by HabourVest on Saturday evening.

“The company has received no offer from HarbourVest Bidco for the asset purchase alternative,” it said.

FTSE 100 miner Randgold Resources said it was “disappointed” that the Malian government shutdown the company’s offices in Bamako on Sunday in a long running dispute over taxes.

Randgold previously disclosed that it has been advised that a large proportion of the tax cliams from the Malian government “are without merit or foundation” and the company “is strongly defending its position”.

Ultra Electronics announced said it has been awarded a $34.6m cost-plus-fixed-fee contract by the US Department of the Navy to continue providing cyber-secure critical infrastructure solutions.

The FTSE 250 firm said initial tasks of $13.9m should be completed by September 2017, with the contract including options which - if exercised - will bring the cumulative value to more than $82m and extend the contract through September 2020.