London pre-open: Stocks to start lower after weekend attacks in Paris
Stocks on the Continent are being called to start the day with large losses following the weekend's terrorist attacks in Paris, with opening falls of circa 2% for the main equity benchmarks.
The Footsie on the other hand was seen faring better, with expectations being for it to open lower by up to 45 points from Friday's closing level of 6,118.28.
In response to the attacks by Isis, on Sunday evening French fighter jets launched a retaliatory raid on the group's infrastructure around the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Meeting over the weekend, in Turkey, reports indicated that G-20 planners had made progress on a timeline for a political transition in Syria, amid some signs of rapproachment between Russia and the US.
As of 07:55 euro dollar was little changed, rising 0.11% to 1.0749.
Nevertheless, in the wake of the Paris attacks, there was some added speculation that the ECB might be that much more likely to move in December.
"While not wanting to second guess the effect of the events of the weekend the closure of France’s borders, along with other security measures, the impact on consumer confidence could well be considerable in the coming days and weeks.
"This in itself is likely to be significant for not only politicians but central bankers as well, and anything that causes European consumers to retrench further is likely to be a significant concern for a European Central Bank already concerned about deflation and a lack of demand," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Homebuiler reports strengthening autumn demand
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said it expected to report a 2% rise in 2015 operating profit margin and a return on net operating assets of more than 25%. In a trading statement for the year to date, the company said it had seen an “excellent summer selling season strengthen further in the autumn period”, underpinned by rising wages and access to a wider range of mortgages. Sales rates for the year to date are ahead of last year at 0.76 sales per outlet per week against 0.66 last time. For the second half to date, sales rates are around 22% higher at 0.73.
The head of BT Group's local access network division Openreach is leaving to become chief executive of Nationwide. Joe Garner will take up the position at the mortgage and savings provider in spring 2016. BT Group said on Monday that one of Garner’s key roles during his 22 month tenure has been overseeing BT's deployment of superfast fibre broadband. The FTSE 100 communications company also said he has relentlessly focused on customer service and operational improvements, driving through changes to help it hit or exceed all 60 service targets set by Ofcom.
Meggitt’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Securaplane, has been selected by Gulfstream to provide high definition cameras for the G650 aircraft. The aerospace and defence engineer said Securaplane and Gulfstream have entered into a multi-million dollar contract for a system that will be standard fit on all future production G650 aircraft and offered as a retrofit for aircraft in service.