London’s top stocks index is expected to ignore the worries posed by Greece and the mixed start to the week for Asian shares to post a strong gain on open.
The FTSE 100 will start 34 points to the good, according to the spread betting firm IG, partially covering Friday’s closing loss of over 50 points and taking the Footsie above 7,000 once more.
The big news overnight was China’s monthly manufacturing data, which revealed the world’s second-largest economy is still in growth mode.
A reading above 50 from the PMI index denotes expansion. Official figures reveal manufacturing was 50.2 (which was around or just below the consensus figure), while services benchmark 53.2.
A survey by the bank HSBC painted a gloomier picture with a PMI reading of 49.2.
It seemed investors in the Shanghai Composite were prepared to accentuate the positive as the index recovered from an initial fall to post a 2.9% gain.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2% amid a wave of mild profit-taking after hitting levels last seen in 2007 on Friday.
In Australia, the commodities driven ASX index fell almost 1%.
Here in the UK, we have results this week from some well-known consumer-facing mid-caps – names such as Dixons Carphone (LON:DC.), Halfords (LON:HFD) and Bellway (LON:BWY).