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FTSE 100 seen slightly higher in a likely quieter Thursday

Published: 07:02 26 Nov 2015 GMT

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London’s blue chips are expected to open slightly higher on Thursday morning.

As US markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday it is expected to be a quieter day, with trading volumes likely down.

Going into the short break Wall Street stocks were flat for the most part, with the S&P 500 closing Wednesday’s session just a point higher at 17,813 while the S&P 500 was a slither lower at 2,088.

The Nasdaq Composite, however, tacked on 0.26% to 5,116.

In Asia this morning Japan’s Nikkei rose about 0.5% to 19,9444 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.15% to 22,462.

The Shanghai Composite was 0.28% lower at 3,638.

Investors in the UK, meanwhile, will be looking for any devil in the detail of yesterday’s Autumn Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

A reflex analysis of Osborne’s spending plans gave defence stocks a lift of Wednesday – due increases to military budgets – while house builders were also boosted by pledges to build more homes.

Buried deeper in the report will be implications for other business sectors, and the less publicised elements of the report are dissected there may well be more fallout.

In early trading, spreadbetting and CFD group IG Markets is sees the FTSE 100 up, slightly. It calls the blue chip benchmark about 6 points higher at 6,339 to 6,344.

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