(Alliance News) - Stocks in London were called to open higher on Monday, following positive Asian markets, as equities look to reverse some of Friday's weakness that was prompted by US rate hike fears.
New York is closed on Monday for the Washington's Birthday holiday in the US.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 33.2 points higher, 0.4%, at 8,037.56 on Monday. The FTSE 100 index ended down 8.17 points, or 0.1%, at 8,004.36 on Friday, but added 1.6% over the course of last week.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1% on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney also climbed 0.1%.
In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 2.0% in late trade. The Hang Seng climbed 1.1% in Hong Kong.
The People's Bank of China left its benchmark lending rate unchanged, an outcome in line with market expectations.
The People's Bank of China held its one-year loan prime rate - which serves as a benchmark for corporate loans - at 3.65%. The five-year rate remained at 4.3%. It was the sixth successive month that the PBoC left rates unchanged.
The loan prime rate is a lending reference rate set monthly by 18 banks. The People's Bank of China revamped the mechanism to price the loan prime rate in August 2019, loosely pegging it to the medium-term lending facility.
The dollar was lower early Monday in London.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2036, up slightly from USD1.1999 at the time of the London equities close on Friday. The euro stood at UD1.0690, up from USD1.0662. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY134.12, down from JPY134.37.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's efforts to break the impasse over Brexit's Northern Ireland protocol have been dealt a blow by Boris Johnson.
The former prime minister warned that dropping the Northern Ireland protocol bill – which would empower the UK to unilaterally scrap parts of the treaty – would be a "great mistake".
Johnson's first intervention on Brexit since departing No 10 comes as his successor-but-one has engaged in frantic diplomacy to secure a UK-EU agreement on fixing issues with the contentious post-Brexit trading arrangements.
After further talks with EU leaders on Saturday, Sunak stressed that a deal is "by no means done", amid speculation one could be unveiled early this week.
The government has indicated that a successful outcome would mean the protocol bill would no longer be required.
Wall Street ended mixed on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.4%, but the S&P 500 index lost 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.6%.
Brent oil was quoted at USD83.70 a barrel early Monday, up from USD82.79 late Friday. Gold was quoted at USD1,844.23 an ounce, up from USD1,835.70.
Monday's corporate calendar for London has annual results from Bank of Cyprus and from investor Georgia Capital.
A quiet economic calendar has a eurozone construction output reading at 1000 GMT.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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