London pre-open: Stocks to rise as investors mull GDP data

by | Sep 10, 2021

London stocks were set to rise at the open on Friday following heavy losses in the previous session, as investors digest the latest UK GDP data.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 19 points higher at 7,043.

Figures released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed that economic growth slowed to just 0.1% in July from 1% in June amid rising Covid cases. That leaves the UK economy 2.1% below pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.

ONS deputy national statistician Jonathan Athow said: “After many months during which the economy grew strongly, making up much of the lost ground from the pandemic, there was little growth overall in July.

“Oil and gas provided the biggest boost, having partially bounced back after summer maintenance. Car production also continued to recover from recent component shortages.

“Rising costs and shortages of raw materials pegged back the construction sector again.”

In corporate news, Cineworld said it would pay $170m of a judgement to dissenting shareholders of Regal Entertainment Group after the company’s takeover of the movie theatre chain in 2018.

A further $92m will be placed into an escrow account to be available to Cineworld as additional liquidity “under certain circumstance”. The funds in the escrow account will paid to the dissenting shareholders no later than March 31, 2022.

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