London pre-open: Stocks seen higher amid Sino-US trade optimism
London stocks were set to gain at the open on Monday amid optimism over Sino-US trade relations.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 60 points higher at 7,485.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The long-awaited trade talks between President Trump and Xi Jinping in Japan over the weekend appear to have gone well. The two leaders met to discuss the trade standoff at the G20 meeting, and a small bit of progress seems to have been made.
"Both sides agreed not to impose new tariffs on each other, but at the same time, President Trump is in no hurry remove the existing levies on Chinese imports. The US administration will take a softer stance in relation to blocking US firms from selling goods to the Chinese company Huawei. Mr Trump said the decision was taken at the request of US tech firms and Xi Jinping. US economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, said there wouldn’t be a complete reversal of the ban, but some US companies would be permitted to do business with Huawei if it doesn’t threaten national security."
On the UK data front, consumer credit, mortgage approvals and Markit’s manufacturing PMI are all due at 0930 BST.
In corporate news, Rio Tinto has appointed Barbara Levi to succeed Philip Richards as a group executive and its group general counsel.
The metals giant said Levi, who was currently group legal head of mergers and acquisitions and strategic transactions for Novartis, would join Rio Tinto on 1 January. Richards would retire from the company on 31 December.
Astrazeneca has received positive opinions from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use for two of its treatments.
The committee backed a self-administration option for Fasenra, an eosinophilic asthma treatment, and also threw their weight behind a marketing change for type-2 diabetes drug Forxiga, allowing the company to include recent positive data.
Specialist media platform Future said full year results would be above expectations underpinned by acquisitions and good audience growth.
The company added that chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand would step down from her role to become chief strategy officer from 1 January 2020.