12th Dec 2025 06:58
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open higher on Friday, ahead of UK gross domestic product, trade balance and industrial production data.
Also in the UK, shoppers shifted away from credit cards and towards debit cards in 2024 as higher interest rates made borrowing more expensive, according to the British Retail Consortium's annual payments survey. Total transactions fell to 20.4 billion from 20.9 billion, but average transaction values increased across all payment types.
The BRC said credit cards accounted for 12.6% of transactions last year, down from 14.2% in 2023, while debit card usage rose to 64% from 62%.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open up 42.3 points, 0.4%, on Friday. The index of London large-caps closed up 0.5% at 9,703.16 on Thursday.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.3392 early Friday, lower than USD1.3416 at the London equities close on Thursday.
The euro traded at USD1.1735 early Friday, lower than USD1.1746 late Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted higher at JPY155.78 versus JPY155.24.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.3%, the S&P 500 up 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.3%.
In Asia on Friday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 1.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 1.7%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 1.2%.
Gold was quoted at USD4,282.30 an ounce early Friday, higher than USD4,254.97 on Thursday.
Brent oil was trading at USD61.58 a barrel early Friday, higher than USD60.91 late Thursday.
In Friday's corporate calendar, commercial shipping firm Taylor Maritime releases half-year results.
In the economic calendar on Friday, France and Germany have consumer inflation data.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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