London pre-open: Gains expected after in-line Chinese data

A broadly in-line set of economic figures from China provided stock markets in Asia with a small boost on Monday, with London's FTSE 100 expected to follow suit early on.As expected, the annual rate of Chinese economic growth slowed down in the second quarter, from 7.7% to 7.5%. This will come as a relief to investors after the country's Finance Minister warned on Friday that growth would average 7.0% in 2013, below the government's 7.5% target.Meanwhile, industrial production growth slowed down more than expected in June, from 9.2% to 8.9% (forecast: 9.1%), but retail sales unexpectedly accelerated from 12.9% to 13.3% (12.9%).Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said that the improvement in retail sales "is going to be essential in the coming years, as China attempts to change course, from an investment driven economy to a consumer driven one".City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up 18 points from yesterday's close of 6,545. Helping sentiment this morning was another record close on Wall Street on Friday after both JPMorgan and Wells Fargo beat consensus forecasts with their quarterly results. Citigroup and Boeing will be in focus today ahead of their earnings releases.Stocks to watchAstraZeneca's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Simon Lowth is stepping down to join BG Group. He will leave the pharmaceutical giant in October, after reporting third quarter results, and will start as BG Group's new CFO the following month. Global banking giant HSBC has announced its intention to offload its private banking division in Germany. HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt and HSBC Trinkaus Investment Managers, HSBC's subsidiaries based in Germany which work with corporate, institutional and wealthy private clients, have entered into an agreement to sell their private banking activities and private banking-related fund business to the VP Bank Group, part of Liechtenstein's Verwaltungs-und Privat-Bank Aktiengesellschaft.Finsbury Food, the cake and bread maker, said profit forecasts for the financial year ended June 2013 are significantly ahead of expectations. The company said: "Whilst our consumer markets remain challenging, our continued focus on growth, in the right areas, combined with relentless cost and efficiency initiatives has enabled the group to achieve improved operating margins year on year."BC