London pre-open: Stocks to gain ahead of non-farm payrolls, Eurozone GDP, UK inflation expectations

The Labor Department’s non-farm payrolls report is expected to show that US companies added 228,000 jobs in November, with the data set to be closely watched as the Federal Reserve looks for indications that the economy is healthy enough to raise interest rates.

The report comes a day after a report showed initial jobless claims rose 297,000 in the week to 29 November, more or less in line with the 295,000 forecast.

CMC Markets UK analyst Jasper Lawler said: "After last month [non-farm payrolls] missed estimates at 214,000, anything above 200,000 without being too close to 300,000 and risking a sooner rate hike from the Fed should be supportive of stock markets, but a miss in estimates may be enough to see dollar weakness."

Also on the economic agenda Friday is the release of the Bank of England (BoE) and GfK’s inflation expectations for the next 12 months. The BoE on Thursday said it would keep its policy unchanged, as expected.

Eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter will also be unveiled, as the European Central Bank monitors the economy after announcing it would maintain policy this week.

In company news, oil and gas explorer Ophir Energy has signed a production sharing contract with the Myanmar Ministry of Energy. The deal finalises the award of Block AD-03 offshore Myanmar, in which the group has a 95% operating interest. The group will re-process existing 2D and before acquiring 3D seismic data as part of the initial exploration period.

Interserve, the support services and construction group, has acquired the Employment & Skills Group (esg), a UK-based provider of vocational training, skills and employability services, for a cash consideration of £25m. esg is one of the UK's largest private sector providers of training and employment services for government and employers, the group said.

Civil engineering group Balfour Beatty has rejected a proposal from an infrastructure fund to acquire its entire public-private partnership (PPP) portfolio for about £1bn. Balfour said the bid from John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) “falls significantly short of its own view of the value of the portfolio.