London pre-open: Strong start expected on Greek hopes

London's FTSE 100 is expected to open positively on Monday morning following tough week which saw the benchmark index lose 1.7 per cent of its value.City sources predict that the Footsie will open with moderate gains from Friday's closing price of 5,770.Newsflow from Greece has lifted sentiment this morning after policy-makers approved its 2013 budget, necessary before the Troika can release the next tranche of the bailout. Parliament voted to approve spending cuts and tax hikes for the next two years last week."Just four days ago, we voted the most sweeping reforms ever in Greece," said Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. "The sacrifices (in the earlier bill and the budget) will be the last. Provided, of course, we implement all we have legislated.""Greece has done what it was asked to do and now is the time for the creditors to make good on their commitments," he stressed.As far as today´s sparse macroeconomic agenda is concerned, economists at Lloyd´s were telling clients this morning that: "against today's lull, the data flow over the rest of the week will provide plenty of material for markets to assess the current soft patch in global activity. (...) For the most part, we expect the data to be softer than consensus which points to further downside pressure on risk sentiment over the next week."Not to be forgotten, today is a holiday Stateside, although the NYSE will be open for trading.Meantime, and in Asia, Japanese growth domestic product contracted at a 3.5% year-on-year pace in the third quarter (Consensus: -3.4%). Indian industrial production fell at a 0.4% pace in September, following an increase of 2.8% in the previous year.Acting as a backdrop, the Chinese government´s hand over of power will continue this week. Company newsDrugs giant AstraZeneca has announced a clutch of positive test results relating to its naloxegol product, a treatment for opioid-induced constipation (OIC).The results come from two Phase III trials and one safety extension trial in patients with non-cancer related pain and OIC.Home builder Taylor Wimpey said the UK housing market remained stable and it was on track to meet full year expectations.The firm said sales rates since the start of July had been similar to the equivalent period of 2011, with an average net private reservation rate of 0.57 sales per outlet per week in 2012 to date.FTSE 250 oil and gas group Heritage Oil is to sell off half of its stake in a production sharing contract (PSC) in Iraq to Genel Energy, led by ex-BP frontman Tony Hayward, in order to pay back a loan.Heritage has proposed divesting of Heritage Energy Middle East's (HEME's) 49% interest in the PSC at the Miran Block in the Kurdistan region, under the terms of $294m exchangeable loan provided to it by Genel in August, including the sum of cash calls paid by Genel to the operator of Miran on HEME's behalf.BC