London pre-open: FTSE to extend Thursday's decline

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open eight points below yesterday's close of 6,717.91, extending yesterday's losses after stocks in both the US and Asia declined overnight. The falls have been prompted by a raft of economic data out this week, which included less-than-impressive Chinese purchasing managers' indices from the manufacturing and services sectors, as well as slowing manufacturing growth in the UK and US.Craig Erlam, an analyst at Alpari, said: "I don't think these losses are anything to be concerned about, despite it being the first time since 2008 that we've seen a negative first trading day of the year. "This just appears to be a little bit of profit taking after indices in the US ended 2013 at record highs. I still believe January is going to be another good month for the markets, we've just had a bit of a rocky start."On today's agenda will be the release of UK mortgage approvals and construction figures. Mortgage approvals are tipped to edge up to 69,700 in November from 67,700 the prior month, while the purchasing managers' index for construction is expected to ease back to 62 in December from 62.6 in November. Later on in the US, Federal Reserve's outgoing Chairman Ben Bernanke will give a speech, which may provide clues as to whether the central bank will further reduce monetary stimulus at this month's meeting. Bernanke, who steps down this month, announced at the last meeting that the Fed would begin scaling back monthly bond purchases to $75bn from $85bn.In this morning's UK-listed company news, Next has raised its full-year profit forecast after achieving a rise in fourth-quarter sales ahead of the UK retailer's expectations. The company expects pre-tax profit between £684-700m for the year to January 25th 2014, up 10-12.6% on the prior year. It comes off the back of a strong fourth quarter with Next Retail sales up 7.7%. In the year-to-date sales grew 1.2%.United Arab Emirates healthcare provider NMC Health said its results for 2013 were expected to be in line with expectations, with growth seen in both its healthcare and distribution divisions throughout the 12-month period. The group's net debt position, capital expenditure and operational cash flow were all also anticipated to be in line with management expectations.APR Energy, which operates in the fast-track power solutions industry, has extended an existing 70 megawatt diesel power module contract with the Botswana Power Corp. for a further 12-month period. It was first appointed by the national electric utility in 2009 to counteract electricity shortages driven by demand growth and supply constraints in the Southern Africa region.NR