(Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 is set to snap its losing streak on Friday and climb at the open, getting a boost from some fresh records on Wall Street and a mostly upbeat Asian session.
In early UK company news, airline Ryanair confirmed it will delist its shares from London, due to regulatory issues following Brexit. DIY retailer Kingfisher now expects profit towards the top end of guidance.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open up 34.94 points, or 0.5%, at 7,296.90 on Friday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 35.24 points, or 0.5%, at 7,255.96 on Thursday.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended mostly higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2%, but the S&P 500 closed up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.5%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices ended at fresh highs.
This momentum flowed into Asia overnight. Stocks in Tokyo got an extra boost after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a record USD490 billion stimulus for the world's third-largest economy.
The JPY56 trillion injection, the third since the Covid crisis struck last year and expected to be approved by the cabinet later in the day, "is enough to deliver a sense of safety and hope to the Japanese people", Kishida said.
The spending will include a variety of measures, said to include cash and coupon handouts to families with children under 18 who meet an income cap, as well as pay rises for nurses and careworkers.
Against the yen, the dollar rose to JPY114.32 versus JPY114.28.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.5%.
In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 1.1%, while the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney gained 0.2%.
The Hang Seng index was down 1.2%, however. Hong Kong lagged the rest of Asia as shares in Alibaba tumbled 10%, a day after it announced quarterly profit sank and lowered its revenue outlook due to slowing economic growth and Beijing's tech crackdown.
The FTSE 100 is seen gaining on Friday even as the pound holds firm around the USD1.35 mark, having ended last week just below the USD1.34 level. Sterling was quoted at USD1.3507 early Friday, higher than than USD1.3475 at the London equities close on Thursday.
Sterling has been boosted by better-than-expected UK data over the past few days, with retail sales for October on Friday capping off the week. Retail sales rose 0.8% month-on-month in October, accelerating from a flat reading for September and beat expectations, according to FXStreet, for a 0.5% rise.
Annually, the decline was 1.3%, worse than the 0.6% recorded for September but better than consensus forecasts for a 2% decline.
The data should come as encouraging as the retail sector heads into the key festive trading period.
In early UK company news, DIY retailer Kingfisher said it expects full-year profit to be towards the top end of guidance following a strong third quarter.
Total sales in the three months to October 31 were GBP3.25 billion, down 6.3% on a year ago. The like-for-like decline was 2.4% on an annual basis, but on a two year one - so in comparison with pre-virus levels - growth was 15%.
Kingfisher reported "resilient" demand against very strong prior year comparatives. It has also made a good start to the final quarter of the year, the B&Q owner added.
"We have entered our final quarter with positive momentum and now expect sales and profits to be towards the higher end of our previously guided ranges. Overall, with strong execution and supportive new long-term trends for our industry, we remain confident of continued outperformance of our markets," said Chief Executive Thierry Garnier.
Kingfisher's full-year adjusted pretax profit guidance range is GBP910 million to GBP950 million.
Dublin-based budget airline Ryanair said it plans to delist from the London Stock Exchange as trading volume "does not justify the costs".
Ryanair had been weighing up such as move for a while now, mentioning the possibility alongside the release of its interim results at the start of the month. At that time, it said trading of its shares in London had "reduced materially during 2021".
"The migration away from the LSE is consistent with a general trend for trading in shares of EU corporates post-Brexit and is, potentially, more acute for Ryanair as a result of the long-standing prohibition on non-EU citizens purchasing Ryanair's ordinary shares being extended to UK nationals following Brexit," it said earlier this month.
Ryanair has now decided to request a cancellation of its London listing, expected to be effective from December 20, and will consolidate trading liquidity to one regulated market "for the benefit of all shareholders".
Ryanair has a primary listing in the Euronext Dublin market and also has American depositary shares listed on Nasdaq in New York.
Great Portland Estates reported EPRA net tangible assets per share of 796 pence as at September 30, up from 779p at the end of March.
The property investor said activity levels have recovered from the lows of 2020 in both the central London occupational and investment markets, particularly in the West End. In its occupational markets, the three months to September 30 saw the strongest quarterly take up since the start of the pandemic, but remained below the long-run average.
"In the occupational market, given a strong leasing and rental performance of the portfolio in the first half of the year, we have upgraded our rental value growth range for the financial year to 31 March 2022 to between 2% and 5%, predominantly driven by the positive performance of our office portfolio," the company said.
Great Portland held its interim dividend at 4.7 pence per share.
Gold was quoted at USD1,858.91 an ounce early Friday, lower than USD1,861.03 on Thursday. Brent oil was trading at USD82.03 a barrel, jumping from USD80.30 late Thursday.
The euro traded at USD1.1357 early Friday, firm on USD1.1351 late Thursday after data showed German producer prices in October jumped 18% year-on-year. This was the highest annual increase since November 1951, which saw a 21% rise.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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