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(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set for a muted open on Friday as investors continued to mull developments in the Middle East conflict.
The FTSE 100 was called to open around four points higher.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "The spike in oil prices remained contained this week, even though traffic through the Strait of Hormuz came to a near halt again. The ceasefire is in jeopardy, but the technical talks between the US and Iran aimed at finding peace in this complex Middle East geopolitical landscape will continue.
"The latter - along with the supply glut in some key markets - helped keep oil prices in check. US crude eased 4% yesterday, pulling back after testing its 200-day moving average in previous sessions, and is consolidating near the $72.50pb level this morning."
In corporate news, easyJet said it has agreed to be taken over by private equity firm Apollo in a £5.7bn deal, taking Castlelake out of the running.
The budget airline announced on Monday that it was ready to accept a sweetened £5.5bn takeover offer from Castlelake after the private equity group tabled a fifth offer at 690p a share. However, it has now agreed in principle on the terms of a possible cash offer by Apollo at 715p per share.
Recruiter Hays said it expected full-year earnings to be at the top end of consensus as the pace of decline in fee income slowed in the fourth quarter.
The company expects FY26 pre-exceptional operating profit will be at the top of the £37m to £46m consensus range.
"Although we have limited forward visibility, we are mindful of heightened global macro-economic uncertainty and expect near term market conditions to remain challenging, with greater resilience in temp & contracting than in permanent," the company said in a trading update.
Emirates Telecommunications Group is to sell its entire stake in Vodafone to French billionaire Xavier Niel for £4.4bn, it was announced.
Under the terms of the deal, E&'s 16.21% stake has been priced at 112.5p per share, a premium to Thursday's closing price of 97.76p.
Vodafone confirmed that the relationship with E& had been terminated, and that its nominee director, Hatem Dowidar, had resigned from the board with immediate effect.
