London pre-open: Stocks to start higher with traders focused on oil, central banks

UK equities are seen starting the day on the front-foot following following another strong rebound on Wall Street last Friday and gains overnight on the main Asian bourses.

All eyes are on the price of oil, as its crash is increasingly considered, alongside Chinese policy moves, as the main short-term driver which pushed stockmarkets lower in the developed world since the start of the year.

The Footsie is seen starting higher by up to 38 points from Friday´s closing level of 5,900.01.

Overnight, the Shangahi Stock Exchange´s Composite Index finished up 0.75% to 2,938.52.

Front-month Brent crude future were little changed as of 08:31GMT, drifting lower by 0.124% to $32.14 per barrel on the ICE.

Sentiment got a bit shot in the arm over the weekend after Wall Street equity gauges managed to close higher with gains of 2% on average, their largest advance since June 2012. Nevertheless, traders and even some fund managers seemed wary about the staying power of those gains.

Acting as a backdrop, investors are preparing themselves for the results of this week´s policy meetings at the Bank of Japan and US Federal Reserve.

Regarding the latter, in a research report sent to clients on 21 January Barclays said that: "the FOMC is likely to be concerned
about market volatility, soft activity and global developments, but it is too soon for a strong signal about March."

On the economic calendar for Monday, the IFO institute was set to release its German business confidence index for January at 09:00GMT.

At noon, The Confederation of British Industry would release its report on industrial trends for January.

DIY specialist sees uplift from restructuring

B&Q owner Kingfisher said on Monday that it is aiming to deliver a £500m sustainable annual profit uplift by the end of year five of its transformation plan. In a statement ahead of the group’s capital markets day, chief executive officer Veronique Laury said: "With a clear roadmap now in place alongside clear long term targets, the size of the five year opportunity is significant.

Sky has invested $10m (£7.0m) in programmatic marketing analytics, data management and media activation software company DataXu. The FTSE 100 broadcaster said on Monday the investment is another example of the company taking a stake in innovative companies to bring in new ideas, insight and services.

LondonMetric has sold the Odeon Multiplex Cinema property in Preston for £10.2m, the FTSE 250 company announced on Monday. The ten screen, 33,000 square foot cinema was sold to Blackrock UK Long Lease Property Fund and reflected a net initial yield of 5.75%. The property was one of ten Odeon Multiplex Cinemas acquired by the company in November 2013.