LONDON (ShareCast) - City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up five points from Friday's close of 5,852, having gained 18 points during Friday's session following positive data from the US.

Over the weekend it was reported in Europe by the Handelsblatt newspaper that the European Union could appoint the European Central Bank (ECB) as the supervisor of Europe's banking sector. Investors also took note of remarks out of Spain´s Economics Minister asking the ECB to commit to unlimited sovereign bond buying.

Of interest as well, Chinese stocks fell to the lowest level since March 2009 last night after real-estate prices rose in the largest number of cities in 14 months in July, creating concerns that economic authorities may hold off on further monetary stimulus.

Back in the UK, average asking prices for homes in England and Wales fell 2.4% month-on-month in August according to property website Rightmove. Values fell by 1.2% in London.

In a separate report, the British Retail Consortium said visits to UK stores declined at a 2.3% year-on-year pace in the three months through July.

House-builder Bovis Homes saw profits come in ahead of forecasts in the first half, helping the firm to double its interim dividend. Pre-tax profits themselves actually doubled in the six months to June 30th, up 100% from £8.1m to £16.2m. Peel Hunt was expecting a figure closer to £14.6m. Revenues gained 27% from £133.6m to £170.3m, as legal completions improved 18% from 801 homes to 944 homes with an average sales price of £164,400, up from £163,400 in the same period the year before. The dividend per share for the first half was hiked from 1.5p to 3.0p.

Nanoco, the AIM-listed manufacturer of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials, has won three grants from the UK government worth almost three-quarters of a million pounds. The grants, which total £736,000 together, were awarded by the UK's innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), which looks to boost the economy by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation, Nanoco said on Monday morning.

Biotech group Proteome Sciences has agreed to work with CHDI Foundation Inc on a systems biology project regarding Huntington's disease. Initially, Proteome will provide its PS Biomarker Services protein profiling to CHDI's research programmes. The analyses will be performed at Proteome's facility in Frankfurt, Germany.

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