London pre-open: Stocks set to fall ahead of ECB meeting

5th Sep 2012 07:29

London's FTSE 100 index is expected to open slightly lower this morning as investors continue to show caution ahead of a pivotal European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy meeting tomorrow. City sources predict the Footsie will open down around 10 points from yesterday's close of 5,672. Yesterday, disappointing manufacturing data from the US and nervousness about the ECB saw the index lose 1.5%.Overnight, the HSBC China service sector purchasing managers' index for the month of August revealed a small slowdown, although to a much lesser extent than for manufacturing, retreating to 52 points from 53.1 in the month before. Bank of Japan (BoJ) board member Ryuzo Miyao has said that the odds of an extended world economic slowdown have increased and that the monetary authority must remain ready to take decisive action if necessary. Australian GDP growth has also come in slightly lower than forecast for the second quarter, at a 0.6% quarter-on-quarter clip (Consensus: 0.7%) versus the previous quarter's expansion of 1.4%. Stocks to watchInsurance giant Prudential has completed the purchase of SRLC America Holding Corp from Swiss Re after receiving all necessary regulatory approvals. The acquisition, first announced on May 31st, was made by Pru's indirect wholly-own subsidiary, Jackson National Life Insurance Company. Jackson has now acquired assets worth around £6.7bn and approximately 1.5m policies, according to a statement earlier this year.House builder Berkeley Group has been cracking on with development at its Grosvenor Waterside site on the outskirts of Chelsea, as a result of which this year's earnings are likely to be towards the top end of brokers' forecasts. Trading since the beginning of May have been in line with the board's expectations, Chairman Tony Pidgley is set to tell shareholders at the firm's annual general meeting on Wednesday.Mining giant Rio Tinto has completed the sale of the North American portion of its Alcan Cable business to General Cable. The sale of the wire and cable manufacturer, designer and supplier netted Rio around $151m in cash. The disposal of the North American business as well as an Alcan Cable operation in Tianjin, China, was agreed in May. BC