London pre-open: Stocks seen slightly higher on positive China data
London stocks were set for a slightly firmer open on Monday as investors digested some encouraging Chinese data over the weekend.
The FTSE 100 was expected to open eight points higher at 7,380.
A survey released on Saturday revealed that China's factory activity expanded at the fastest pace in five years in September, with the official manufacturing PMI coming in at 52.4 from 51.7 in August. This marked the highest level since April 2012.
Closer to home, market participants will be keeping an eye on the Tory Party conference that got underway over the weekend. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said it may introduce an element of risk for sterling traders, "though we probably probably won’t see another flash crash, like we did last year, as long as ministers stick to their Brexit scripts".
On the data front, Markit's manufacturing purchasing managers' index for September is at 0930 BST. Hewson said it's expected to print at 56.3, down slightly from August's 56.9.
Investors will also be watching out for any headlines on Spain after Catalans voted for independence, with preliminary results revealing that around 90% of respondents favoured a split over the weekend. However, the turnout was low and the referendum was deemed illegal by Madrid. More than 800 people were hurt on Sunday as riot police attacked protesters and civilians going to cast their ballots.
In corporate news, Indivior has submitted a new drug application in the US for a once-monthly injectable schizophrenia treatment and agreed to buy out patent rights from a manufacturer of similar antipsychotic medication.
At the end of last week, the 250 company filed the NDA with the US Food and Drug Administration for 'RBP-7000', an injectable version of antipsychotic medication risperidone that is administered via Atrigel, its patented slow-release drug delivery system.
Hiscox said that net claims from hurricanes Harvey and Irma were likely to total around $225mm based on an insured market loss of $35bn.
The Lloyd's of London underwriter said that although there is still a degree of uncertainty around the hurricanes, the figure is within the group's modelled range of claims for events of this nature and it still has depth of cover in its reinsurance programme.
Tritax Big Box announced that it has exchanged contracts to acquire a national distribution centre at Danes Way, Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal in Northamptonshire, let to Royal Mail Group.
The FTSE 250 real estate investment trust said total consideration was £48.82m, excluding purchaser's costs, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.0%, with the purchase being funded from equity.
Vodafone Group announced that its Vodafone Portugal operation and Portuguese telecommunications and media conglomerate NOS have signed an agreement to deploy and share a fibre-to-the-home network which would be marketable to around 2.6 million homes and businesses in Portugal.
The firm said both it and Euronext-traded NOS would provide reciprocal access to each other's networks on commercially-agreed terms, although financial details were not disclosed.