London pre-open: Stocks to rise as investors eye Trump-Putin summit

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to gain at the open on Friday as investors eyed talks between Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska as the US president attempts to put an end to the Ukraine conflict.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 55 points higher.

Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone, pointed out that the meeting is not due to start until 8.30pm London time, meaning things will likely conclude a long while after the market closes for the week, with a press conference set to be held once talks wrap up.

"Hence, there is the potential for significant gapping risk when markets get back up and running for the week on Sunday night, though positions will probably be squared up, especially in crude benchmarks, during the day today, to mitigate that risk somewhat," he said.

There are no major corporate or macroeconomic releases due in the UK as the summer lull well and truly sets in.

In the US, however, retail sales, industrial production and export/import prices are due, along with the University of Michigan sentiment index.

"Headline retail sales are set to have risen 0.6% MoM in July, unchanged from the pace seen a month prior, while the control group metric, which feeds into the GDP basket, is seen rising 0.4% MoM, just 0.1pp slower than the pace notched in June," said Brown.