London pre-open: UK stocks to open higher after long weekend

7th Apr 2015 07:44

UK stocks are expected to open in positive territory on Tuesday morning following a four-day weekend, tracking gains on Wall Street.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open 37 points higher than Thursday's close of 6,833.46."European markets have been closed since Thursday and so they have a little catching up to do," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.US stocks finished with decent gains on Monday, rebounding strongly after registering earlier losses, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising nearly 120 points. Friday's disappointing jobs report was cited as the reason behind the rise, given expectations that the Federal Reserve will not rush to raise interest rates too quickly.Figures out last week showed that US non-farm payrolls totalled just 126,000 in March, slightly over half the 245,000 expected by analysts.In other news, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde said she had received confirmation by Greece that it would repay an outstanding €450m to the IMF this week.Stocks to watchMining giant Rio Tinto has completed a bigger-than-expected off-market share buyback due to strong demand. The company, as part off its planned US$2bn capital return announced in February, repurchased 11.6m shares at a price of 560m Australian dollars (US$431m). This was higher than the A$500m (US$400m) initially indicated.Capital and Counties Properties, otherwise known as Capco, has announced the completion of the Earls Court Partnership Limited (ECPL). The partnership now owns new 999-year leases over Earls Court 1 and 2 and has acquired certain other adjacent property interests from Capco which are primarily located on and around Lillie Road and which at 31 December 2014 were valued at £49m.