London stocks were set to nudge higher at the open on Thursday following a marginally firmer close on Wall Street, as investors eye the latest reading on the UK services sector.
The FTSE 100 was called to open eight points higher at 7,116.
Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, said: “On the macro front, traders and investors continue to focus on inflation pressure add the reopening of the US businesses. All eyes will continue to remain on the upcoming US non-farm payrolls data that is due tomorrow. Earlier this week, we have seen the US manufacturing numbers, which weren’t overwhelming, and today we have the US ISM non-manufacturing services data.
“Suppose the data fails to report a meaningful pickup in jobs. In that case, we are highly likely to see traders’ selling their dollar positions further as they may anticipate another feeble NFP’s reading. On the flip side, if we see a strong ISM non-manufacturing reading, we could experience renewed demand for the dollar index because traders are likely to expect a rebound in jobs number due on Friday.”
On the UK calendar, Markit’s services PMI for May is due at 0930 BST.
In corporate news, B&M European Value Retail warned 2022 UK revenues would be lower against tough comparatives as it reported better-than-expected annual profits.
The company, which remained fully open during the pandemic, said adjusted core earnings rose 83% to £626.4m on the back of a 26% rise in revenue to £4.8bn.
“Trading continues to be volatile at a weekly and product category level, in particular since the recent easing of lockdown restrictions. This is likely to remain the case for the whole of full-year 2022, as the business annualises against the very strong comparatives throughout last year,” it said.
“As such, the B&M UK business expects to see a decline in like-for-like revenues in full year 2022 compared to 2021, but is focused on delivering a healthy two year LFL versus 2020.”
