London pre-open: Stocks to drop ahead of Brexit vote
London stocks were set to open down on Monday as investors eye the next key Brexit debate in the House of Commons this week.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 23 points lower at 6,786
Meanwhile, the pound was stable, down just 0.1% versus the dollar at 1.3179.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said it’s another big week in Westminster as the next stage in the Brexit debate starts to take shape on Tuesday.
"The pound has made some decent gains over the past few weeks on the basis that a ‘no deal’ Brexit seems a much more distant prospect.
"A lot of this still seems more like wishful thinking than anything else, given the parliamentary arithmetic, as well as the politics. Markets seem to have a lot more faith in politicians than many think they deserve, nonetheless the pound hit eighteen-month peaks against the euro on the basis that an article 50 extension could well find its way into an amendment when Parliament meets to debate the latest attempt to break the deadlock over the UK’s withdrawal agreement and political declaration tomorrow."
Over the weekend, Ireland’s deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney told BBC’s Andrew Marr that the backstop element of the withdrawal agreement is was "not going to change" and that the EU would not ratify a deal without it.
In corporate news, Wood Group said it has reaped $54m in cash proceeds from selling off stakes in non-core joint ventures in the last couple of months.
The company agreed the sale of stakes in a UK road-building concession, a Chinese manufacturing facility and a pair of Italian gas power plants in December and has also completed the disposal of an Italian wind farm JV that was first announced in August.
Automotive fluid technology specialist TI Fluid Systems updated the market on its trading for the year ended 31 December, saying it anticipated its results would be in line with its expectations.
The company said it expected to report revenue of about €3.5bn for the year. On a constant currency basis, it expected its 2018 revenue growth to exceed growth in global light vehicle production by approximately 3.0%.
Bank of Georgia Group said on Monday that on 25 January its banking division JSC Bank of Georgia opened a new office in the centre of Tbilisi's Freedom Square, intended to serve its wealth management clients.
The company said it has offered wealth management services since 2005, and currently served more than 1,500 clients from around 80 countries. Its wealth management business had representation in Tbilisi, London, Budapest, Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Limassol.