London pre-open: Strong performance in Asia set to lift FTSE at opening bell

13th Nov 2014 07:30

A strong session in Asia overnight is expected to help lift sentiment in the UK on Thursday morning, with City sources predicting the FTSE 100 will open around 15 points higher than the previous day's close of 6,611.04.Overnight, data was released from both Japan and China, with the Nikkei jumping after machine order growth came in ahead of expectations at 2.9%."European markets are looking at a lot more of a rosy picture today, as markets finally digest yesterday's dovish Bank of England and look forward to Eurozone [inflation] figures," Alpari market analyst Joshua Mahony said."[The machine orders figure] represents the fourth consecutive positive month-on-month figure, a feat that hasn't been managed for over 15 years. With the impact of the sales tax having had an impact upon investment back earlier in the year, there is no doubt that the economy is back firing on all cylinders which could provide Shinzo Abe with the indication that another sales tax could be implemented without any long lasting ill effects to the economy."Attention will also be on German inflation, the European Central Bank's (ECB) Monthly Report and its Survey of Professional Forecasters.German inflation is expected to be confirmed at 0.8% year-on-year, well under the ECB's target of just below 2%. The ECB has been under mounting pressure to address dangerously low inflation in the single-currency bloc.In the US, initial jobless claims are forecast to come in at 280,000 for the week to 8 November, after 278,000 claims the previous week.Back in the UK, engine maker Rolls-Royce has reiterated that its recently-downgraded guidance for growth remains unchanged, following the announcement last week that it would be cutting 2,600 jobs and accelerating its cost-cutting programme. The engineering group announced on 4 November that it would be incurring restructuring costs of £120m over the next two years. "Excluding these charges, our guidance is unchanged for 2014, 2015 and the medium-term outlook, as outlined on 17 October," the company said in a statement on Thursday.ITV revenue growth accelerated in the third quarter as the broadcaster and TV producer continued to generate television advertising revenues significantly ahead of the market. Total external revenues rose 8% to £1.8bn in the nine months to 30 September, up from 7% growth in the first half of the year, with broadcast and online revenues up 7% and online, pay and interactive up 24%.A 50/50 joint venture between St. Modwen Properties and its partner, Vinci, has been granted planning permission to redevelop the 57 acre New Covent Garden Market site in London. The major 10-year project will see the delivery of over 500,000 square foot of new state-of-the-art market facilities together with the transformation of three high quality residential neighbourhoods.