London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on final day of the year

London stocks were set to fall at the open on Thursday, with volumes expected to be light and markets in the UK open for just half a day.

Source: Sharecast

The FTSE 100 was called to open 42 points lower at 6,510 on the final day of a year most of us would probably rather forget, with Brexit and Covid-19 dominating the headlines.

Meanwhile, the pound was up 0.1% against the dollar at 1.3643, having rallied sharply on Wednesday after British lawmakers approved the Brexit trade deal.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, said: "Investors are more confident today as the members of the UK Parliament approved the Brexit deal yesterday. There was always an element of risk and uncertainty that the House of Commons may not agree with the Brexit deal.

"But now, investors know that everyone is behind this trade deal, and there is no more uncertainty when it comes to Brexit as everyone knows what to do and how to minimize the damage. There is no distrust that lawmakers have secured one of the greatest deals as they still have a free trade agreement with the EU, yet they secured their borders, which really triggered Brexit."

Unsurprisingly, corporate news was almost non-existent, but transport operator FirstGroup said it had sold three North American properties in its Greyhound bus operation for $137m (£102m) as it rationalises its portfolio.

The company is trying to offload the iconic coach business, which operates throughout the US and Canada and was acquired by FirstGroup in 2007 for £1.9bn, to focus on bus and rail operations in the UK.

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