London pre-open: Slight rise expected on FTSE ahead of European data

14th Nov 2014 07:32

The final session of the week is set to kick-off with limited gains ahead of important data out from Europe.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around 11 points higher than Thursday's close of 6,635.45.Friday's session will see the release of Eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) amid concerns about the health of the bloc's economy.Analysts expect GDP to have risen by 0.7% year-on-year in the third quarter, after 0.9% growth the previous period.Separately, a report is forecast to confirm consumer prices rose by 0.4% in October, well below the European Central Bank's (ECB) target of just under 2%.The market has called on the ECB to boost stimulus measures to address a stagnant economy and dangerously low inflation.CMC Markets analyst, Jasper Lawler, said: "Gains made in European stock markets since mid-October ended with the ECB's rate-setting meeting last week, the upshot of the meeting is that the ECB is willing to do more, but it would prefer to wait for the results of existing programmes unless absolutely necessary. "It seems that without additional ECB stimulus, markets need European economies to do the hard lifting to justify further gains. While Europe is far from out of its deflationary, high unemployment quagmire; some signs of a pickup in growth on Friday may be enough to refocus attention on rising corporate earnings."The session will later on see the release of a report on US retail sales, which is expected to show sales rose 0.2% in October, following a 0.3% fall the previous month.The University of Michigan also releases its US consumer-confidence index, which is projected to drop to 87.5 in November from 86.9 in October.In company news, engineering group IMI said that organic growth eased in the third quarter, but full-year results should still be in line with forecasts, as it announced the £120m acquisition of German power valve specialist Bopp & Reuther. Revenues in the four months to October, adjusted for acquisitions, disposals and exchange rate movements, were just 1% ahead of the prior year, slowing from the 3% organic growth registered in the first half.Balfour Beatty has agreed to sell parts of its German Rail business for gross proceeds of £6m, although the net cash consideration will be approximately zero once the cash transferring with the business is taken into account. The disposal, which continues its plan to divest all of its mainland European rail businesses, comprises the German track and plant and Austrian businesses.