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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening higher on Friday, with markets taking heart after US President Donald Trump pledged an orderly transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden following ugly and violent scenes in the Washington earlier this week.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 20.3 points higher at 6,877.26. The blue-chip index added another 15.10 points, or 0.2%, to close at 6,856.96 on Thursday.
"With the Democrat clean sweep confirmed, financial markets hitched themselves onto the last stimulus train out of town overnight, helped along by a contrite (by his standards) President Trump promising an orderly transition of power," OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley said.
On the London Stock Exchange, housebuilder Barratt Developments said it will resume dividend payments when declaring its interim results in February. Pest control and hygiene firm Rentokil Initial said its full-year outturn will be ahead of market expectations.
Among mid-caps, retailers were in focus. Marks & Spencer posted a sales fall but hailed its "robust" Christmas trading. Pets at Home reported strong life-for-like sales growth during December.
Barratt said its first-half performance was "excellent", though its sales rate has now moderated from previous highs, as the housebuilder expected.
For the first half ended December 31, its sales rate climbed 12% to 0.77 net private reservations per active outlet per week. The housebuilder has been boosted by the stamp duty holiday and by the UK government sparing the housing sector from recent Covid-19 restrictions.
Barratt's home completions rose 9.2% annually to 9,077 and total forward sales at December 31 were 14% higher year-on-year at 13,588 homes at a value of GBP3.21 billion, which up 19% from 12 months ago.
"The board continues to recognise the importance of dividends to all shareholders. As announced at our full-year results, the board plans to implement a dividend policy based on a full-year dividend cover of 2.5 times. Subject to no material change in the operating environment, the board now expects to agree the resumption of dividends with the interim results on 4 February 2021," Barratt added.
Housebuilders will be in focus when Halifax releases its latest monthly UK house price data at 0830 GMT.
Rentokil said its annual adjusted pretax before amortisation will be at the upper end of the GBP292 million to GBP337 million market forecast range.
"Trading across both our Hygiene and Pest Control categories has continued to be strong in Q4 - primarily reflecting continued strong sales from one-off disinfection service," Rentokil said.
The company on Friday unveiled another acquisition, it said it has bought Tampa, Florida-based residential pest control company Environmental Pest Service. EPS had annualised revenue of USD80 million in 2020, Rentokil said.
For the whole of 2020, Rentokil forked out GBP180 million on acquisitions. The figure does not include the buy of EPS, whose price wasn't disclosed.
M&S said revenue in the third quarter ended December 26 fell 8.4% annually to GBP2.77 billion. In its UK arm alone, revenue was down 8.2% to GBP2.53 billion, or 7.6% like-for-like.
The food unit was the star again, with like-for-like revenue up 2.6%, though the Clothing & Home arm suffered a 24% plunge. During November, hit by a lockdown in England, Clothing & Home revenue dropped by an even steeper 41%.
"Given the on-off restrictions and distortions in demand patterns our trading was robust over the Christmas period. More importantly beneath the Covid clouds we saw a very strong performance from the Food business including Ocado Retail and a further acceleration of Clothing & Home online," Chief Executive Steve Rowe commented.
Animal products retailer Pets at Home also updated on its third quarter, which ended December 31. In December alone, like-for-like revenue grew in the "high-teens".
Promisingly, the company now expects annual pretax profit to be GBP77 million ahead of its previous guidance of GBP93.2 million, "including the previously announced repayment" of GBP28.9 million in business rates relief.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3579 early Friday morning, up from USD1.3565 at the London equities close on Thursday.
On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Thursday pledged an unprecedented national effort to roll out Covid-19 vaccines across the UK, as GPs warned of "teething problems" in some areas with doctors getting supply.
The PM said almost 1.5 million people have now been vaccinated against the disease, and the government intends to give everyone in care homes a jab by the end of January.
He said "if all goes well" then hundreds of thousands of vaccines can be administered per day by January 15 and "it is our plan that everyone should have a vaccination available within a radius of 10 miles".
The euro stood at USD1.2262, down from USD1.2274 at the European equities close on Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY103.87, improved from JPY103.80.
The economic events calendar on Friday has eurozone unemployment figures at 1000 GMT before key US jobs report for December at 1330 GMT.
Figures are expected to show 71,000 jobs were added in December, down from 245,000 in November.
"The mother of economic data, the US NFP, will be released today, and investors will be dissecting every part of this number. In nearly eight months, today is the first time that we are expecting the non-farm employment number to be below the 100,000 mark. This is clearly the reflection of the deteriorating coronavirus in the US, which made the many US States reverse the restrictive coronavirus measures," said Avatrade analyst Naeem Aslam.
"However, traders should never underestimate the volatility of the US NFP number, especially the fact that these numbers are going to be under the influence of the holiday period. There is always a possibility of an upside surprise as there could be an abnormality in the final reading."
The data comes in the wake of the US political situation calming down somewhat.
US President Donald Trump appealed for "healing and reconciliation" on Thursday following unprecedented scenes of violence at the US Capitol the day before, pledging a smooth transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.
In a video message aiming to calm tensions after his supporters stormed the US Capitol as Biden's election victory was being certified by lawmakers Wednesday, Trump voiced outrage at the clashes that saw one woman shot dead by police at the seat of US government.
Meanwhile, a police officer who was injured while responding to the pro-Trump protesters has died, according to US Capitol Police.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4% to another 30-year high, with sentiment positive despite a state of emergency being declared in Japan's capital.
In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.2%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 1.0% in late trade.
Brent oil fetched USD54.84 a barrel early Friday, up from USD54.51 at the London equities close on Thursday.
Gold was quoted at USD1,910.07 an ounce, down from USD1,914.89.
The economic events calendar on Friday has the UK Halifax house price index at 0830 GMT and eurozone unemployment figures at 1000 GMT before the key US jobs report for December at 1330 GMT.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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