London Stocks Points to More Gains Amid General Elections

LONDON, U.K. – Shares in the London stock market is pointing towards a more optimistic open on Thursday’s trading session as market players are heading to polls and casting their votes for the UK general elections.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index is looking towards some advances as the market opens, expecting to add 10 points to reach 7,226.

According to Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets, voting for the UK general election is scheduled to begin this morning, and the British pound expects to record gains. He also stated that with the campaign’s already done with, the next move for the sterling expects to follow the first exit poll release, which is scheduled around 22:00 GMT. Once the polls are out, the market will get a clearer indication of the outcome of the elections, which is already partly expected.

Hewson also commented that the polls had given a consistent and decent lead for the Conservatives party, which is led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the past few weeks. However, he also said that despite the Conservative-favored polls, the recent slips from both parties this week could have a major impact that could shift the voting calculus.

Aside from the UK general elections today, market players are also mulling over the latest announcement from the Federal Reserve, which said that the interest rates would stay as is, as expected by many. The vote for the decision of the central bank was unanimous following several objections during its recent meetings.

Commenting on the bumper payroll reports last Friday, Hewson also said that the latest numbers had strengthened the confidence of US policymakers towards the labor market and the US economy, in general. However, the positive payroll data caused declines for the US dollar.

Later in the session, market sentiments will shift its focus towards the latest policy announcement for the European Central Bank.

In the UK corporate sector, the Balfour Beatty construction group said that it is expecting better than expected numbers for its full-year earnings on operations, following the additional investments on infrastructures during the second half of the year.

The company reported the earnings would generally be in line with the 205 million euro’s revenue forecast in 2018.

The AstraZeneca also made a statement that has already gained a marketing authorization from the National Medical Products Administration in China for the “Imfinzi” for treatments of patients with stage three lung cancer.

The benchmark FTSE 100 said that the Imfinzi approval was based on the primary analysis reports of the progression-free survival.