Britain’s blue chip shares are expected to begin trading flat out of the gate on Friday on what is anticipated to be a quiet day on the corporate front.
Spread betters reckon the top index will remain around yesterday’s closing mark of 6,532, which was the Footsie’s highest level in three weeks.
The main focus on Friday will be on US non-farm payrolls, which will shed more light on the state of the world’s biggest economy and the Federal Reserve’s possible plans for tapering.
The market is expecting the jobs numbers to increase by 180,000, while the US unemployment rate is tipped to remain at 7.4%.
Scaling back America’s bond buying programme appears to be just a matter of time. Encouraging data today could nudge Fed chairman Ben Bernanke into tapering the scheme before the year is out.
Wall Street traded higher on the whole on Thursday as investors built up hopes of a good set of figures.