London pre-open: Small gains expected, Morrisons reports £0.8bn loss

12th Mar 2015 07:40

UK markets were set to open slightly higher on Thursday ahead of a busy day for economic data.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open 18 points up on Wednesday's close of 6,721.51.Investors will be looking out for a barrage of economic indicators during the session, whilst keeping their eyes on moves in the euro and dollar which have dominated trading over the last few days.The currencies are getting closer to parity - the EUR/USD temporarily dipped below 1.05 early on for the first time since January 2003 - as the European Central Bank bond-buying programme continues and speculation ramps up about a rate hike Stateside."The pair looks to be stabilising, although the mere fact that it made new lows this morning and isn't showing signs of momentum loss suggests to me that bias is going to remain to the downside," said analyst Craig Erlam from FX specialists Oanda.In economic data, German inflation numbers are due out on Thursday, along with figures on UK trade, Eurozone industrial production, US retail sales, US jobless claims and US business inventories.Stocks to watchLike-for-like sales improved in the fourth quarter at Morrisons but the grocer reported a £792m loss before tax for 2014 as it wrote down the value of its stores by £1.3bn. The supermarket group said it was hiking the total dividend by 5% to 13.65p but said the payment for the new financial year was likely to be more than halved, to "not less than 5p per share".ITV has agreed to acquire television producer Talpa Media for around £355m. ITV's decision to acquire the Netherlands-based production and distribution business marks the company's latest move in a strategy to create international content and expand across Europe.Antofagasta has reached an agreement with locals to resolve two-week-long protests that have affected production at its flagship Los Pelambres copper project in Chile. The company expected normal operations to be resumed in the coming days, but admitted that the industrial action resulted in 8,000 tonnes of lost production.