27th Dec 2024 07:03
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open lower on Friday, as trading resumes after the Christmas Day and Boxing Day holidays in Europe.
The UK high street saw a slump in the number of people heading to the shops during Boxing Day sales, signalling a return to declining pre-pandemic levels, PA reports.
Boxing Day shopper footfall was down 7.6% from last year across all UK retail destinations up until 8pm, MRI Software's OnLocation Footfall Index found, although it predicted that GBP4.6 billion will be spent overall on the festive sales. Barclays Consumer Spend had forecast that shoppers would spend GBP236 each on average in the Boxing Day sales this year, but that the majority of purchases would be made online.
However, this year's data had been compared with an unusual spike in footfall as 2023 was the first "proper Christmas" period without Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, an analyst at the retail technology company said. Also, footfall is expected to rise on December 27 as people emerge from family visits and more shops re-open after Boxing Day.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open down 5.3 points, 0.1%, on Friday. The index of London large-caps closed up 34.27 points, 0.4%, at 8,136.99 in a shortened trading session on Tuesday for Christmas Eve.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.2524 early Friday, lower than USD1.2555 at the London equities close on Tuesday.
The euro traded at USD1.0410 early Friday, higher than USD1.0403 late Tuesday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted higher at JPY157.76, up from JPY157.10.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended narrowly mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.1%, the S&P 500 down 2.45 points, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.1%.
In Asia on Friday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 1.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.1%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.5%.
Industrial production in Japan declined by 2.3% on month in November, figures out on Friday showed, the first month-on-month decline in three months.
Gold was quoted at USD2,634.90 an ounce early Friday, higher than USD2,614.31 late Tuesday.
Brent oil was trading at USD73.26 a barrel early Friday, higher than USD73.03 late Tuesday.
"Oil's gains reflect continued optimism about the recovery in demand for crude from China with successive support measures that are expected to begin to crystallise over the next year," said XS.com analyst Samer Hasn. "The latest of these measures was the approval of a historic USD3 trillion treasury bond offering next year, which was announced earlier this week.
"It also follows monetary support packages and talk of plans to restructure the social system, which could be reflected in consumer spending, which is one of the most important weaknesses of the economy."
In Friday's corporate calendar, Gelion releases full-year results.
In the economic calendar on Friday, there are retail sales figures from Spain and trade balance data from the eurozone.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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