29th Mar 2019 06:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening in the green on Friday, with investors welcoming reports of progress between the US and China on trade.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has signed a cancer drug development agreement with Daiichi Sankyo. It will pay the Japanese company a total of USD6.9 billion and will raise USD3.5 billion in equity to cover the up-front payment and early milestones.
The deal is for Daiichi Sankyo's lead antibody drug conjugate trastuzumab deruxtecan (DS-8201). The drug is currently in pivotal development for multiple HER2 expressing cancers including breast and gastric cancer, and additional development in non-small cell lung and colorectal cancer.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 26.5 points higher at 7,260.83. The blue chip index closed up 40.14 points, or 0.6%, at 7,234.33.
Sentiment has continued to be boosted by a report by Reuters stating the two have made "unprecedented" progress on the thorny issue of technology transfer.
"Sentiment was largely positive after reports the trade negotiations between the US and China were improving," said CMC Markets' David Madden.
"It was reported Beijing made 'unprecedented' proposals to the US in relation to forced technology transfers, and that it is a major step forward, as the trade talks were never just about China buying more US goods."
US and Chinese trade teams on Friday resumed negotiations in Beijing to end months-long trade frictions.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He welcomed US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at a government guesthouse in Beijing for the second and last day of talks.
Liu is scheduled to travel to Washington next week, as the top officials continue negotiations over issues such as intellectual property protection, the amount of imports, forced technology transfers and government subsidies.
The two teams will "spare no effort" in carrying negotiations meant to end a months-long trade war, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said Thursday.
In the UK, the speaker of the Commons, the Parliament's elected main house, has allowed the government to table a new motion on Prime Minister Theresa May's deal to leave the EU.
Speaker John Bercow had warned that he might not allow a vote on a new Brexit motion unless it differed significantly from the one that lawmakers twice rejected.
Bercow said the government's motion for Friday's vote is "new and substantially different" from the previous two "meaningful votes" on Brexit.
The government said the third vote on May's deal will cover only Britain's withdrawal agreement, or "divorce settlement", and not the separate political declaration on future relations with the EU.
"Westminster will remain in focus as there is talk MPs will be asked to vote on the withdrawal agreement, but not the 'political declaration'", said CMC's Madden.
"Should the vote take place, it stands a slim chance of being passed as the DUP are staunchly opposed to prospect of Northern Ireland being treated differently to Great Britain post Brexit, and if the DUP vote it down, the anti-EU ERG are likely to follow suit."
UK consumer confidence remained negative in March, a monthly survey showed on Friday, though fears over the general economy persist.
The GfK UK Consumer Confidence Index reading for March was minus 13, the same as February's score. A year ago, however, the reading had been minus 7.
"Against a backdrop of stable inflation and a robust labour market, where wages continue to grow more quickly than prices, confidence has remained negative but fairly stable since the referendum," said Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, a market research company.
"However, while UK consumers report a small increase in optimism for their personal financial situation for the coming year, the index is being dragged down by our nagging fears for the general economy," he noted.
"Things might change when people feel the current crisis has passed but what sort of resolution can consumers reasonably contemplate just now? Or are consumers rightly sensing a bumpier economic climate for post-Brexit Britain?"
The UK corporate calendar on Friday has interim results from commercial flooring maker James Halstead, Africa-focused oil & gas explorer BowLeven and veterinary services provider CVS Group.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 0.4%, the S&P 500 also up 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite ending up 0.35.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 3.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 1.1%.
Industrial production in Japan perked 1.4% on month in February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Friday - in line with expectations following the 3.4% slide in January.
On a yearly basis, industrial production sank 1.0% - but that beat forecasts for a fall of 1.1% following the 0.3% gain in the previous month.
Upon the release of the data, the METI updated its assessment of industrial production, saying industrial production is pausing.
Retail sales in Japan were up a seasonally adjusted 0.2% on month in February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. That missed expectations for an increase of 1.0% following the 1.8% decline in January.
On a yearly basis, retail sales advanced 0.4% - again missing expectations for 1.0% and down from 0.6% in the previous month.
The economic events calendar on Friday has German retail sales numbers at 0700 GMT, France's inflation readings at 0745 GMT, German unemployment figures at 0855 GMT and UK fourth-quarter GDP data at 0930 GMT.
In the afternoon there is US personal spending data at 1230 GMT, including the core personal consumption expenditure index reading - the Fed's preferred inflation measure.
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