Source: Sharecast
The FTSE 100 was called to open around 15 points higher.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "As we start a new month, equity market futures are a sea of green, and risk sentiment is high. This suggests that the seven-month long rally in global stock markets could continue. The latest drivers include an easing of US/China trade tensions, and some strong tech earnings.
"Commodities are also in focus; the oil price is higher after Opec + decided to pause oil production hikes from next month. The gold price is also rising this morning, and is above $4000 per ounce, after falling below this level last week."
Later in the week, attention will turn to the latest policy announcement from the Bank of England.
"The market does not expect any change to interest rates and the focus instead will be on the Bank’s updated forecasts for CPI and the GDP," Brooks said.
"The UK interest rate swaps market is pricing in less than a 30% chance of a cut at this meeting, instead the market expects the BOE to hold off cutting rates until February. The pound was the weakest performer in the G10 FX space last week, so confirmation that the BOE won’t cut rates could see a small bounce in the pound later this week."
In corporate news, industrial safety equipment maker Intertek said it had bought Suplilab, a provider of food safety and medical devices testing services, based in San José, Costa Rica for an undisclosed sum.
Capita said its contact centre business has secured a key contract extension with Samsung Electronics UK.
Under the new contract, for which no financial details were given, Capita will continue to provide voice, email, and social media community management support to Samsung customers who purchase electronic products, ranging from TVs to mobile phones.
Student accommodation provider Unite Group said that acquisition target Empiric Student Property had achieved occupancy of 89% and like-for-like rental growth of 4.5% year-to-date, with the group experiencing an increase in demand from UK domestic students, partially offsetting a reduction in the number of bookings from Chinese students.
Unite said its appraisal of the acquisition had assumed lower occupancy and rental growth than the prior academic year, which was reflected in its offer terms, but noted that Empiric's occupancy for the 2025/26 academic year was "slightly below these expectations", whilst rental growth was in line with expectations.
