London pre-open: Stocks seen up ahead of ECB announcement

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday following an upbeat close on Wall Street, as investors awaited an expected rate cut announcement from the European Central Bank. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 28 points higher.

Danske Bank said: "The ECB is widely expected to deliver a 25bp rate cut, largely because the Governing Council members have stated as much.

"The updated June staff projections are expected to suggest that the prevailing economic and monetary policy narrative stays broadly unchanged, and we expect the rate cut to be formulated as a rollback of the 'insurance hike' from September last year.

"We expect the ECB to repeat the meeting-by-meeting and data-dependent approach to the policy rate path beyond June, and we forecast the next cut only in December."

The ECB policy decision is due at 1315 BST. On home shores, the S&P Global/CIPS construction PMI for May is due at 0930 BST.

In corporate news, annual profits at outsourcing giant Mitie surged as revenues hit a record £4.5bn - in line with company expectations.

Pre-tax profit for the year to March 31 came in at £156m from £105m a year earlier. Revenues were up from £4bn as Mitie's order book rose to $11.4bn from £90.7bn. Shareholders were rewarded with a 38% dividend increase to 4p a share.

Asset manager Bridgepoint Group announced that founder and chair William Jackson is to step down from the board this summer.

Jackson, who will continue to chair Bridgepoint's Private Equity business, said it was a "good time" to transition to an independent non-executive chair after three years as a listed company.

The board has unanimously agreed to appoint Tim Score, currently chair of British Land, as Jackson's replacement, with the succession happening on 1 July.