London pre-open: Gains expected as markets react to tumultuous weekend

(Sharecast News) - UK stocks are expected to rise on Monday morning as investors reacted to a flurry of market-moving news over the weekend, such as the exit of Joe Biden from the US presidential race, a reduction in interest rates in China and ongoing global IT outages. Stock market futures were showing a rise of around 0.7% on the FTSE 100 ahead of the open in London after the index closed Friday's session at 8,155.72, its lowest since 9 July.

The economic data calendar for Monday looked relatively light, with markets likely to focus on a surprise easing of monetary policy by the People 's Bank of China. The central bank cut its one-year loan prime rate by 10 basis points to 3.35% and reduced its five-year loan prime rate by 10bp to 3.85%.

"Modest rate cuts so far and from hereon reflects PBOC's complex policy calculus between anaemic domestic activity, currency weakness, structurally-weak credit demand, and banks' compressed net interest margins. We expect further modest easing this year," said Louise Loo, lead economist at Oxford Economics.

In company news, Vodafone Group said it had sold a further 10% stake in the joint venture that co-controls Vantage Towers for €1.3bn to reduce its debt. The sale achieves the 50:50 joint ownership structure with the consortium of infrastructure investors led by Global Infrastructure Partners and KKR that was envisaged when the co-control partnership was first announced, Vodafone said on Monday.

Entain announced the appointment of Gavin Isaacs as its new chief executive officer, effective from 2 September. The FTSE 100 gambling giant said Isaacs would bring more than 25 years of experience in the sports betting, gaming, and lottery industries, having held leadership roles in prominent companies like Scientific Games Corporation and DraftKings. As part of its succession plan, Stella David would assist Isaacs during the transition period and then succeed Barry Gibson as chair of Entain after his retirement on 30 September,