20th Mar 2026 06:57
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open slightly higher on Friday, as the price of oil retreated after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war with Iran will end sooner than people think.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 4.2 points higher at 10,067.70 on Friday. The index of London large-caps closed down 241.79 points, 2.4%, at 10,063.50 on Thursday.
Sterling was at USD1.3406 on Friday morning, up from USD1.3367 at the London equities close on Thursday. Against the euro, sterling fell slightly to EUR1.1594 from EUR1.1597.
The euro was higher at USD1.1563 from USD1.1527. Against the yen, the dollar was higher at JPY158.40 versus JPY158.09.
The price of oil fell after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was being "decimated" and that the war would end earlier than many feared.
Brent oil was trading lower at USD108.11 a barrel on Friday morning from USD110.46 on Thursday.
Netanyahu told a news conference that Israel and the US were "winning and Iran is being decimated", adding that the Islamic republic no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles.
"This war is ending a lot faster than people think," he said without providing a specific timeframe.
Netanyahu also said he would help the US try to secure Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas flows.
Asked whether he had talked to the prime minister about attacking Iranian gas fields, US President Donald Trump said: "I did. I told him, don't do that, and he won't do that.
"You know, we're independent. We get along great. It's coordinated, but on occasion, he'll do something, and if I don't like it...and so we're not doing that anymore."
He had warned Iran earlier that US forces would "massively blow up" the South Pars field if Tehran did not stop attacking Qatar, to which Iran said it would have "zero restraint" if its energy infrastructure was hit again.
Traders were also weighing a swathe of central bank decisions from Thursday, after the Bank of England and European Central Bank held rates steady.
Pepperstone analyst Michael Brown said: "It increasingly looks the case that, if the [Monetary Policy Committee] don’t have the confidence to cut by the time of the next meeting in April, they may not cut again all year, thus running policy far too tight, amplifying the negative demand shock that the economy must grapple with, and ultimately running the risk of undershooting the 2% inflation aim over the medium-term."
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.4%, the S&P 500 0.3% lower and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3%.
In China on Friday, the Shanghai Composite was 1.2% lower, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong lost 1.1%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was 0.8% lower. Financial markets in Japan were closed on Friday.
Gold was higher at USD4,669.50 an ounce early on Friday from USD4,603.53 late Thursday.
On Friday's economic calendar, there are UK public sector net borrowing figures, German producer inflation, and eurozone current account and trade balance data.
On the corporate calendar, JD Wetherspoon and Smiths Group will report their half-year results.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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