LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks are set to open slightly lower Friday as investors continue to focus on Greece's struggle to renegotiate the terms of its debt bailout and await the US non-farm payroll report later in the session.
IG indicates the FTSE 100 to open 16.13 points lower at 6,849.8. The index closed up 0.1% at 6,865.93 on Thursday as a rise in oil prices supported oil-related stocks, but investor sentiment was subdued after the European Central Bank said it would refuse to accept Greek government bonds as security for loans.
Following talks on Thursday with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, known for his hardline stance on eurozone fiscal issues, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis called for "bridging" finance until a new agreement between Athens and its lenders could be negotiated. He said he was not seeking to have any of Greece's sovereign debt wiped out.
"We didn't reach agreement. It was never on the cards that we would agree. We did not agree to disagree: We agreed to enter into negotiations," he said. Schaeuble had earlier said the diplomatic phrase for the encounter should be "agree to disagree".
Brent oil continues to hold onto its gains made Thursday to trade at USD57.76 a barrel ahead of the London equity market open. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate is quoted at USD51.61.
Wall Street ended strongly Thursday, with the DJIA closing up 1.2%, the S&P 500 up 1.0%, and the Nasdaq Composite also up 1.0% .
In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei closed up 0.8%, while the Hang Seng trades down 0.3%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 2.0%.
In the corporate calendar Friday, the only scheduled release is from FTSE 250-listed property company Shaftesbury.
In the economic calendar, the focus will be on US nonfarm payrolls, unemployment rate and earnings data at 1330 GMT. There will also be German industrial production at 0700 GMT, and French and UK trade balances for December at 0745 GMT and 0930 GMT respectively.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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