LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks have opened flat Friday, and with little in the economic calendar, trading sentiment is likely to be driven by comments from central bankers.
The focus for much of the day will be speeches by central bankers in Europe and the US as the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve meetings in December draw closer, with expectations high for monetary policy changes from both central banks - the ECB loosening and the Fed tightening.
Soon after the London open, ECB President Mario Draghi and board member Benoît C?uré were both speaking at events in Frankfurt. Draghi said that while the ECB's monetary policy measures were clearly working, the central bank would use all instruments available to reach its inflation goals of 2.0%.
The ECB's chief economist Peter Praet will be speaking at 1000 GMT, ECB board member Vítor Constâncio at 1300 GMT and Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis President James Bullard at 1400 GMT. Investors also will be keen to hear from Deutsche Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann at 1015 GMT.
Germany's producer prices declined at the fastest pace since early 2010, data published by Destatis showed Friday. Producer prices decreased 2.3% in October from last year, the biggest fall since February 2010, when prices declined 3%. Producer prices have been falling since August 2013. Economists had forecast prices to fall 2% after easing 2.1% in September.
In an otherwise sparse the economic calendar, the preliminary reading of eurozone consumer confidence for November is expected at 1500 GMT and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's manufacturing activity figure is released at 1600 GMT.
The FTSE 100 index traded flat at 6,331.80, the FTSE 250 was also flat at 17,147.75 and the AIM All-Share was down 0.15 at 730.07.
In Europe, the French CAC 40 was down 0.1% and the German DAX 30 was flat.
Asian stocks closed their week on a positive note. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.1%, the Shanghai Composite up 0.4% and the Hang Seng up 1.1%.
In the FTSE 100, Diageo shares were up 1.3% after JP Morgan upgraded the drinks maker to Overweight from Neutral. G4S meanwhile, was down 1.6% after the outsourcer was cut to Neutral from Outperform by Credit Suisse.
BAE Systems was up 0.6%, having said on Thursday it was awarded a GBP1.3 billion contract to handle the delivery of the fifth Astute Class submarine for the UK's Ministry of Defence.
The FTSE 100-listed defence contractor said the contract will include the design and remaining build, test and commissioning work on the fifth submarine, called Anson. The submarine is now at an advanced stage and is on schedule to leave BAE's Cumbria site for sea trials in 2020.
In the FTSE 250, Poundland Group shares were recuperating some of Thursday's heavy losses and traded up 3.5%. The company fell 20% on Thursday after it revealed that current trading for the company looks volatile, while analysts were concerned that the condition of the recently-acquired 99p Stores business is worse than expected.
Vedanta Resources was one of the worst performers in the midcap index, down 2.3% after UBS cut the miner to Neutral from Buy. Countrywide traded down 1.4% after Citigroup cut the property services company to Neutral from Buy.
On AIM, 88 Energy traded up 8.3% at 0.5795 pence after it raised USD3.0 million from a placing to back the acquisition of new acreage at its Icewine oil and gas project in Alaska. 88 said it has issued 300.0 million shares at USD0.01 per share to raise the funds.
In addition to the placement, the company has offered eligible shareholders the opportunity to take part in a share purchase plan to raise another USD2.0 million.
Digital video security systems provider SerVision said it has secured two new orders from existing distribution partners worth a total of EUR230,000. The first order covers the supply of 150 MVG400 units for a fleet of buses in Portugal, secured through its local distribution partner, ENA Portugal Telecommunication Systems.
The second is for 300 HVG400 units to be installed in custom-built mobile trailers to be used in construction sites in the Netherlands. That was secured through distributor Tedas Security Solutions BV. The company traded up 8.3%.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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