(Sharecast News) - Stocks are being called to start the session higher tracking the gains seen overnight on Wall Street.
That was some despite somewhat contradictory comments from US President Donald Trump and the speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, regarding the outlook for further fiscal stimulus in the US.
Against that backdrop, FTSE 100 futures are rising by 7.5 points to 5,967.0.
Investors were also digesting the latest UK gross domestic data in the UK.
According to the Office for National Statistics, GDP expanded at a month-on-month pace of 2.1% in August, falling short of forecasts for a rise of 4.6%.
That left the level of economic activity in the country 9.2% below where it was in February, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics said that meant the Monetary Policy Committee's own projection for third quarter GDP to be only 7.0% below its pre-Covid 19 level at the end of the third quarter would not be met.
Shepherdson said it also meant that it was "very likely" that the MPC would extend its quantitative easing programme at either its November or December meetings.
LSE hives off Borsa Italiana
London Stock Exchange has agreed the sale of Borsa Italiana for about €4.32bn (£3.9bn) to Euronext, the company said on Friday. The company is selling Borsa Italiana to get approval for its $27bn purchase of financial data business Refinitiv, announced in August 2019. LSE chief executive David Schwimmer said the company continued to make good progress on the "highly attractive" Refinitiv transaction.
British Land reinstated its dividend after performance at its retail assets improved following the Covid-19 lockdown. The commercial property company said it would announce an interim divided in November and that payouts would be 80% of underlying earnings per share. It will pay the dividend twice a year instead of quarterly. British Land suspended the dividend in March to protect its finances as much of the UK economy shut down to stem the spread of Covid-19. The FTSE 100 company said performance measures at its buildings had improved since non-essential retailers were allowed to reopen in June.
Biffa has acquired the industrial and commercial waste collection business Simply Waste Solutions, it announced on Friday, which focuses on the south of England. The FTSE 250 company said it had acquired all of the share capital of Camo, which trades under the Simply Waste brand, for an upfront debt and cash free consideration of £ 35m. That was being funded from existing committed debt facilities.