London pre-open: Stocks to start lower with analysts divided on Trump tax-cut proposals

Trading is set to start on a soft note after some analysts were left feeling underwhelmed by the tax cut proposals which were announced by the White House on Wednesday night.

The UK's top flight index is seen starting the session 0.42% lower from Wednesday's closing level of 7,288.72.

Gary Cohn, President Trump's top economic adviser, announced a raft of proposals including reducing the top individual tax rate from 39.6% to 35% and cutting the corporate tax rate form 35% and 15%, but the plans were short on specifics, drawing mixed reactions.

For Michael Levy at Berenberg Capital Markets, the plans are enough.

"Despite President Trump's erratic approach to policymaking, the positive news is the differences between the Administration and Congress will be debated and reconciled, which should facilitate progress on tax legislation. Accordingly, we maintain our view that tax legislation will be enacted later in 2017 and maintain our forecast of significantly stronger economic growth, with momentum building in 2018," Levy told clients.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets on the other hand has this to say: "Markets had been hoping for more in the way of specifics, in particular the percentage level of the one-off profits tax, which it is hoped will prompt technology companies to repatriate the billions of dollars in profits currently held overseas, as well as some indications on timings, and how the cuts would be funded.

"These still appear to be some way off, and appear unlikely to go through this year, though we may get something on healthcare by the end of the month."

The key event to watch on the corporate calendar for Thursday is the European Central Bank's policy announcement at 12:45 GMT, followed by chief Mario Draghi's press conference at 13:30 GMT.

The latter will coincide with the release of data on US durable goods orders and foreign trade in goods for March, alongside weekly initial unemployment claims data all at 13:30 GMT.

In the UK, the CBI's Distributive Trades Survey is set for release at 11:00 GMT.

To take note of, Antofagasta, Fresnillo, Informa, ITV, Legal & General and Relx will all go ex-dividend today.

Management at Lloyds reiterates full-year targets

Lloyds Banking Group’s first quarter profit increased with the part state-owned bank still on track to meet its 2017 targets.Underlying profit increased 1% to £2.08bn compared to last year, and rose 16% against the previous quarter, with an underlying return on tangible equity of 15.1%.

Vodafone announced on Thursday that it had agreed to renew its strategic partnership with competitor mobile network Proximum in Belgium and Luxembourg for a further five years, building on a “successful long-term relationship” that began in 2003. The agreement would enable both companies to offer joint products and services across their networks to provide the “optimum experience” for their consumer and enterprise customers.

Housebuilder Persimmon said current forward sales revenue, including legal completions taken to date, was up 11% to £2.56 bn, adding that it was confident on future prospects. It added that the weekly private sales rate per site since reporting 2016 results in February was 12% ahead of last year, resulting in a sales rate which was 4% ahead for the year to date.

Advertising giant WPP reported a slower start to 2017 after the loss of some major accounts but struck a confident tone about renewed and encouraging new business wins to keep the full year on track. Like-for-like net sales rose 0.8% in the first quarter, as expected by the market, down from the 2.1% growth in the fourth quarter of last year and 1.2% growth in January after the loss of AT&T in the preceding quarter and VW in this latest period.