London pre-open: Stocks to track Asia lower ahead of GDP data

London stocks are called to open lower on Friday, taking their cue from a downbeat session in Asia, where the Shanghai Composite tumbled 5% amid reports that several brokerages in China were being investigated for alleged violation of securities regulations.

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 24 points lower than Thursday’s close at 6,369.

The second release of third quarter UK GDP will be the highlight on the economic front, at 0930 GMT. The figure is widely expected to remain unchanged at 0.5%.

“The UK economy is continuing to face a number of headwinds at the moment which are likely to persist into next year, most notably the strong pound and anaemic growth in the Eurozone, its largest trading partner,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

“In the absence of either of these pressures easing, we could see growth remain at these decent, albeit uninspiring, levels in the coming quarters, which explains why the Bank of England is in no rush to raise interest rates. Especially at a time when the euro is depreciating as the ECB looks to ease monetary policy further, a BoE rate hike on top would exacerbate the strong currency issue even further. “

Balfour Beatty awarded £104m Norfolk road contract

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has been awarded a £104m contract by Norfolk County Council for the Norwich Northern Distributor Road (NNDR).

The FTSE 250 company announced on Friday it will construct the new 19.6km dual carriageway, including nine new roundabouts, seven new bridges, an underpass and a more complex two level junction.

Construction will begin this winter and will be completed in late 2017, with over 500 people employed on the project at its peak.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has approved the $1.9bn expansion of its high-quality Amrun bauxite project in Queensland's Cape York Peninsula. The initial output should be 22.8m tonnes a year of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium, increasing annual bauxite exports from Cape York by around 10m tonnes annually to help meet growing bauxite demand from China