FTSE seen opening higher

September 3, 2010 9:59 AM EDT

The FTSE 100 is seen climbing 7-8 points on open on Friday, with moves seen muted ahead of closely watched employment data from the United States.

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The blue chip index is seen opening up around 0.15 percent higher after it closed 0.1 percent up on Thursday, its fifth consecutive session in positive territory.

Fears about the state of the global recovery have eased somewhat this week on surprisingly strong manufacturing data from the U.S. while economic figures from China and Australia also improved confidence.

Nonfarm payrolls are forecast to have fallen 100,000 after declining 131,000 in July, according to a Reuters survey.

The MSCI Asian stock index outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> added 0.2 percent. In Japan <.N225>, stocks rose 0.3 percent, with exporters among the best performers.

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There is a sense among some analysts that given strong rise this week that a soft payrolls number would be used as an excuse to book gains this week.

"Just by the look of trade throughout Asia, my feeling is that risk is probably coming out of the markets heading into tonight," said Ben Potter, market strategist at IG Index in Melbourne.

"People don't seem to want to carry a strong week's work over the weekend.

Investors will watch CIPS PMI services data for August for a steer on the British economy. It is expected to come in at 52.9, down from 53.10 the previous month.

(Reporting by Simon Falush)<